Europe spends a lot of money each year to pay for fishing boats to fish in third countries waters.
A Few 100 million € Here, A Few 100 million € There
Looking at the available public information, it seems just a few hundred boats are pocketing 100’s of millions in access subsidies. Add in the boat building and modernization grants we are perhaps looking at billions of euros having gone to bank roll a tragic case of European corporate welfare.
New Voices on the Fishing Committee
Now the basic role of a Parliamentarian is to know where the public’s money – hard working families across Europe – is spent.
The fishing committee does not have a great track record of doing this basic job. Listening to them in public debate, their main interest seems to be getting ever larger bots of the subsidy pie channeled to their allies in the fishing industry.
This all is carried out in basic secrecy. Chris Davies, the UK Liberal-Democrat, recently asked to know some basic information about who fishes under fishing partnership agreements and how much money the taxpayers dole out to them. The Commission gave an answer that can be either read as cry for help or cry of staggering incompetence that they had little clue what was going in Member States.
You can find the question and answer here:
Persistence
Today, I asked for the information. It will be interesting what chapters of Franz Kafka’s The Trial Commission officials feel inspired to recite in their reasons to hide the hidden billions of euros paid to a few rich fishing boat owners.
Dear European Commission
Subject: Request for Access to Information – EU Vessels Who Fish Under the EU’s Fishing Partnership Agreement
Could you please inform me
· How many EU vessels fish under each EU fishing partnership agreement
· If possible, could you identify the vessel number of each vessels fishing under fishing partnership agreements and how much the EU taxpayer has given them
- How many vessels from EU member states fishing in third country waters under bi-lateral fishing agreements.
As recently as 1996, DG MARE had a database with this information on.
If you have any questions, please contact me.
Kind regards
Aaron McLoughlin
Sunshine is a great detergent
Now, of course, it will be interesting to see how the Ombudsman or Court reacts to the Commission’s flaccid reasons and reasoning.