The European Commission today agreed an extra €32 million in aid for 2003 to cover the proposed scaling-down of the European fishing fleet.
Reform of the fisheries policy, which was mooted last May and which proposes to cut the fleet by 8,592 vessels, will cost an estimated €712 million.
However, despite substantial amounts of structural funds set aside by individual member-states to compensate fishermen, the European Commission estimates that there is still a shortfall of €272 million needed over the period 2003 to 2006.
Following yesterday’s amendment to the budget, the Commission said today that it intended to make up the deficit over the next four years in order to keep the remaining fleet viable.
The EU Budget Commissioner, Ms Michaele Schreyer said the Commission’s priority at the moment was to maintain the fleet as a sustainable entity while implementing the proposed cutbacks.
"The overall objective of the fishery reform is to develop sustainable fishing activities, by adjusting fishing capacities to sustainable stocks," she said.
"To this end a supplementary contribution of €32 million in the year 2003 will help to launch this fundamental change of policy which also aims at protecting natural resources for future generations."
The largest part of this extra-financing will come from the re-deployment of financial means within the already-planned Structural Funds programmes 2000-2006.
As the mid-term review of Structural Funds will not come into effect before 2004, the additional amount of €32 million is decisive in initiating the reform of the fisheries policy in 2003, and enabling the decommissioning of fleet excess capacity to start immediately.