No new trawlers

SCOTTISH MEP Struan Stevenson has repeated his call for Brussels’ new funding scheme for fishermen to prevent increasing capacity of the European fleet.

Speaking this week, the Tory MEP said that efforts to reform the European Marine Fisheries Fund (EMFF) must take on board criticism from the EU’s auditors that no one had defined how big the fleet should be to achieve maximum sustainable yields or a sustainable fishery.

He said: “Commissioner Damanaki said in a recent speech that building up healthy fish stocks in our waters is in itself the best way to increase our fishermen’s income.
 
“But we cannot hope to build up fish stocks unless we tackle the over-capacity of the EU fleet and we cannot tackle overcapacity if we use taxpayers’ money to subsidise the construction of new fishing vessels, or the modernisation of existing vessels or indeed the upgrading of engines supposedly to make them more fuel-efficient and to cut CO2 emissions.”

Mr Stevenson said the new EMFF should be used to fund “selective gear, for safety on board vessels, for marketing, for POs and for boosting EU aquaculture”.