EU states differ sharply on fishing subsidies

EU member states stuck to their sharply different views Tuesday on how 6.5 billion euros ($8.5 billion) in 2014-20 fishing industry subsidies should be spent -- modernising or cutting back the fleet. Critics say subsidies have only contributed to overfishing while the European Commission wants them adjusted after a report showed they failed to reduce capacity at a time when many species are under massive pressure. Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden believe subsidies are a thing of the past and want to put the focus on fish farming and more high-tech fishery practices. France, Spain and Portugal however argue that subsidies are essential for their still large fishing fleets and want them maintained. Frederic Cuvillier, French minister for transport and the maritime sector, said the subsidies are needed to modernise boats, provided that actual fishing capacity is left unchanged as a result. His German counterpart Ilse Aigner said that modernisation, as in upgraded, more environmentally friendly engines, inevitably increased capacity. "It may be good for the environment but not for the fish," Aigner said. Germany is "generally very sceptical about all these measures ... what is clearly indefensible is to finance an increase in capacity when we already have too much capacity," she said. The EU is aiming to put its fishing industry on a sustainable basis, matching catch capacity to the maximum amount of fish that can be taken under a Maximum Sustainable Yields system.