Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 9 • Number 22 • 14th December 2009

Brussels Provides Numbers on Fisheries Subsidies

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Environmental groups say they were shocked last week when the full extent of EU subsidies to its Mediterranean tuna fishing fleet was revealed by EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Joe Borg. The announcement, prompted by a parliamentary question issued by Spanish Green MEP Raül Romeva i Rueda last September, said Brussels has handed out €34.5 million in subsidies between 2000 and 2008.

Of the €34.5 million provided by the EU, €23 million was used for constructing new fishing boats and €10.5 million was used to modernise existing vessels. Brussels also provided €1 million for decommissioning small-scale artisanal vessels. Overall, the funds applied to 611 vessels from Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, and Spain.

“I am shocked at the scale of the subsidies given to the bluefin fleet,” Romeva i Rueda said. “This shows clearly the hypocrisy of the EU, which insists on the need to conserve fish stocks while simultaneously encouraging the rapid expansion of a fleet that was already too large.”

Sergi Tudela of WWF says obtaining an accurate estimate of the extent of European fisheries subsidies has been difficult until now. “We’ve always suspected the amount of public subsidy was very high,” said Tudela. “European citizens have given a gift of €34.5 million to the bluefin tuna industry which has resulted in the collapse of an ancient fishery.”

Tuleda also pointed out that the numbers are in fact much higher - perhaps as much as double - when national subsidies are factored in.

The revelations come at a time when the EU is being lobbied heavily by environmental groups to alleviate pressure on Mediterranean bluefin tuna stocks, which scientists say are being threatened by overfishing. Earlier this year, Monaco made a proposal to list bluefin tuna under Appendix I in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 5 October 2009, http://ictsd.org/i/news/biores/56863/). The proposal, currently backed by the US, would effectively place a ban on all international commercial trade of the species.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) - the organisation responsible for regulating the bluefin tuna industry - reeled in 2010 catch quotas to 13,500 tonnes (from 22,000 tonnes in 2009) at its annual meeting in November. But environmentalists say the new benchmark does not account for widespread illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 27 November 2009, http://ictsd.org/i/news/biores/62325/).

In addition to pushing for a CITES ban and reduced quotas imposed by ICCAT, environmental groups have also been pushing for fisheries subsidy reform at the WTO. But despite progress on fisheries talks at the WTO, the overall glacial pace of Doha Round negotiations - seen again at the organisation’s recent ministerial conference - has few depending on it in the short term (see related story, this issue).

ICTSD Reporting; ‘Hypocritical’ EU gives €34.5m to fleets fishing tuna to extinction,” TIMES ONLINE 4 December 2009.