On June 12 in Luxembourg, Fisheries Ministers will meet to hammer out a deal to reform the failed Common Fisheries Policy. Money to soften the pain of dragging an industry into the 21st century will be an important part of any final outcome.
This set my mind racing. Just how much money do European taxpayers hand over (involuntarily) to fishermen each year. Now, I should declare an interest. I have been working on and off on fisheries subsidies since 1997. The lack of transparency about how much money (let alone where it goes)- the EU and the Member States give the fishing industry each year is staggering.
How Much Of Our Money Goes to the European Fishing Industry
Oceana comes up with a figure of €3.3 billion a year given by Member States and the European Union to the fishing industry. This is for 2009.
You can see the report here.
Where Do the Billions All Go?
The money goes in an array of taxpayer funded gifts. Our money is used to help pay for the fuel bill of fishermen, provide them very generous fuel duty exemptions, pay for fleet modernisation, helps build and upgrade the ports, and even buying new engine. I still find paying for fishing access in foreign countries waters the strangest use of my money. You can see a long list of the taxpayer freebies on page 5 of Ocean’s report.
How Many Fishermen Are We Talking About?
You may think we are talking about a huge industry. But, according to the EU’s own fish experts, in 2009 there were around 150,000 working fishermen.
You can read the report here.
How Much Are Fishermen Earning
Now according to the EU’s fishing experts it seems that the average income is around €18,350. Of course, the earnings vary a lot. The Dutch fishermen gets paid around €44,460, most earn a lot less.
How Much Subsidy For Each Fishermen
There is a lot of very scarce taxpayers’ money – €3.3 billion to be exact – being spent on an industry whose total income in fish landing each year is about €6.4 billion. I know fishermen are not getting the aid directly. I guess the vessel owners are the beneficiaries.
But, if these figures are correct, in Europe today, we have an industry who each fishermen gets a pay out from the government of €20,000, yet still only get an salary of only of €18,350.
Now, I know that the reality is likely to be that the main beneficaries of government handouts are larger scale fishermen. I suspect that small scale fishermen have never got much and nor have been that interested in fishing for government funds.
Subsidy Scam in the 21st Century
Now, this sort of economic madness is not exceptional. Since the Corn Laws, well financed industrial lobbies have worked hard with politicians who support them, to take money from hard working taxpayers and hand it over to their interests. It’s a very successful scam.
But, it is still a scam. And, I don’t understand why, when today hard working families are suffering so much economic pain, we still are forced to fall for this scam. A radical step to bring the industry crying and shouting into the 21st Century, would be to remove the subsidies. Let the profitable fleet survive. Smaller, leaner and more environmentally and economically viable.
Now, I wonder if Finance Ministers from cash strapped countries will force the same economic reality on the fishing fleet as they are doing on the rest of us? I am sure fishing ministers will fight tough and nail to stop it.