Fishing for the Future
On 6 February 2013, the European Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of an ambitious reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. 502 elected politicians embraced the future and backed an overhaul of a failed policy.
The voting was heavily along national lines. Nearly every British MEPs backed reform. German Socialists and Christian Democrats voted together. A large number of German Christian Democrats ignored the voting instructions from their Spanish Conservative fisheries leads and pressed the button for reform.
1 Step Forward – 2 Steps Backward
On Tuesday 22 October 2013, the European Parliament will vote on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, the European subsidies scheme for fisheries.
The total sum of the EMFF over 2014-2020 will be around 5 billion euro. From that, assistance to buy new nets to prevent discards and even buy lifejackets for the crew is meant to come from. Now, that is quite a lot of money, especially for an industry where in many fishing nations the industry contributes less to the national economy than it costs to run and operate. That is, the fleet is a loss maker for Europe PLC.
If subsidies are going to be used for any industry, which personally I am circumspect should happen, at the very least the subsidies shall be used to support the implementation of this ambitious reform as adopted back in February.
Taxpayers Paying For Nice Big Boats
Now, MEPs on the fisheries committee think that spending money on adapting for the future is a very silly idea. Instead, the slight majority want to build new boats at taxpayers’ expense.
The idea that a company knows when and where to invest is a basic idea known to most people in Europe. For many MEPs it seems to be an unspeakable heresy.
Corporate Welfare Cheques for the Rich
In the last reform, the EU scrapped subsidies to build fishing vessels. Now, the European Parliament wants to re-introduce them. Now, if you want to get a better idea of who really gets the money visit the site, Rich European Fishermen, and you’ll see Europe’s distant water fleet who fish Africa’s waters (at taxpayers’ expense) and whose boats were again in the main paid for in part by taxpayers.
Even the Marxists Would Blush
Now, the strange thing is that fishermen are very individualistic people. They are not the sort of people whose idea of fishing is fishing for state welfare cheques. I don’t think they are. The industry’s leaders put out pronouncements calling for more subsidies that would make even the most wild-eyed Marxist blush in shame.
And, you’d be amazed to find out most fishermen never touch the money. Fishermen in Estonia are doing very well growing the fish stock and being profitable. They even build new boats and modernise their existing vessels all at their own expense. This feat of personal responsibility is happening everywhere. I guess that less than 10% of fishermen take 80% of the subsidy honey pot available today.
If MEPs wanted to face their voters with dignity in May 2014 in the next European Election they’d have the moral audacity to say they embraced a Europe of the future and not the ideals of a failed past.
Who Would Benefit
It will be interesting to see how the people react if they learn that their politicians vote through a huge gift of money for a very few people when most people in Europe are dealing with a painful recession. Only companies like Pescanova, the Spanish global fisheries giant, that recently collapsed in a mist of allegations of fraud and corruption, would stand to gain to access to large piles of taxpayers’