Thirty-six French and Spanish vessels found guilty of breaking CFP rules still received a total of €13.5 million in subsidies between 1994 and 2006, a report shows.
The study, done by fishsubsidy.org and commissioned by the Pew Environment Group, focused on only Spain and France, two major fishing nations in the Union., so Pew underlined that it only gives “a snapshot” of the problem, especially so since data on convictions is very hard to obtain: for this study the principal sources were newspaper reports, giving “a very incomplete picture of the situation”.
“European governments should publish comprehensive lists of convictions for illegal fishing so we can know who is breaking the law. This is the only way to ensure that public money is not going to fishermen who are breaking laws that protect our precious fisheries.” said Jack Thurston, a co-founder of fishsubsidy.org.
The study involves matching records of court convictions with still available data on EU fisheries subsidy payments. Five of the vessels on the list received more than €1 million each in EU subsidies and some of the vessels on the list had been convicted multiple times, drawing heavy fines.
An example given in the study was Hodeiertza and Gure Reinare, two vessels owned by Pesqueras Zozuak / Pascual Santizo. In 2001, they were found guilty of using illegal fishing gear, and each vessel was fined €35,000. The EU had financed the construction of the vessels to the tune of nearly €2 million between them. Hodeiertza received a further EU grant for modernisation in 2006.
“EU Member States should ensure those in receipt of subsidies are not engaged in illegal fishing. Subsidies have in the past fuelled overfishing; in the future they must be used to support a transition to more sustainable fishing”, said Markus Knigge of the Pew Environment Group.
To the European Voice he added that a 2006 rule change had meant a setback in transparency. It was then decided that member states, rather than the Commission, were required to keep data on subsidy payments.
“What we received [from the Commission] was quite a sophisticated table. Now if you go to these different websites [of member states] they disclose only very limited information. You know that Mr Smith has had €10,000 but you don’t know what for”, he remarked.
A spokesman for the new Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said she “takes these accusations very seriously” and will be looking into “these types of problems”, the European Voice reported.