Joint NGO letter to the European Parliament against harmful subsidies

In the letter 101 environmental organisations wrote to Members of the European Parliament calling on them to maintain the EU ban on subsidies for the construction of fishing vessels. This ban has been in place since 2004 and we ask parliamentarians to maintain this position. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal on the ocean and seas (SDG 14) calls explicitly for the elimination of subsidies that contribute to overfishing by 2020. Attempts to reintroduce subsidies for the construction of new vessels undermines the objectives of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy to end overfishing and send the wrong political signal from the EU to leaders around the world.