“The whole EU fishing fleet is becoming virtually unprofitable,” says EU Commission
Does this help to explain the EU’s insistence on plundering UK territorial waters?
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2022
A look at EU fisheries policies and the Commission’s continued insistence on its ‘Green Deal’
On Friday last week (25 Mar 2022) the EU Commission announced:
“Due to the impact of the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine, many EU fishers [sic] do not go at sea [sic] because it costs them more than staying in port. The whole EU fleet is becoming virtually unprofitable.”
- EU Commission statement, Brussels, 25 Mar 2022
Before Putin’s war on Ukraine, EU fisheries was all about the UK
For much of the past six years, any pronouncements from the EU about fisheries have concerned their insistence on continuing to fish in UK territorial waters.
Regular readers will recall that as recently as November last year Facts4EU.Org produced a series of reports showing how President Macron and his government were wilfully escalating this issue with little regard for the facts.
Given that Monsieur Macron and his ‘attack puppy’ Clément Beaune were making wild claims, and that the British Government was weak in its responses, Facts4EU.Org set the record straight.
The EU’s fisheries ‘crisis measures’
In the same announcement it made on Friday the Commission decided to activate what it calls “new crisis measures” to support the fishery and aquaculture sectors, in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The crisis mechanism of the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) is intended to bring relief to operators of the fishery, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors through financial compensation for their economic losses and additional costs.
Despite the ‘fisheries crisis’, the Commission still brings its ‘Green Deal’ into it
On her appointment as EU Commission, President Ursula von der Leyen stated the top priority of her administration would be her ‘Green Deal’.
In Brussels, it appears that policies in almost every area of life must be brought back to ‘climate change’. This is certainly the case with regard to the EU’s latest ‘fisheries crisis’ announcements.
On Friday, Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries said:
“The war in Ukraine is a war against all of us. Our fisheries, aquaculture and processing sectors are hit hard due to high energy, oxygen and raw material prices.”
“These emergency crisis measures should not in any way impede our long-term efforts towards structural energy transition of the fishery and aquaculture sectors to achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal.”
“The aquaculture and processing sectors are also harmed by the increase of costs of energy and raw materials, as well as high logistics and transport costs. It is expected that the fish market will face a negative supply shock, both of fresh [EU] fishery products due to the decisions not to go at sea and of certain processed or preserved products as a consequence of the raw material shortages.”
Mr Sinkevičius is a young Lithuanian politician and bureaucrat. Since 2012 when he graduated from Aberystwyth University (in the UK), he has mostly worked in public administration and has certainly never had any experience of fisheries.
As is the case for all EU Commissioners, this lack of experience did not disqualify him in 2019 from obtaining the top job in the EU Commission when it came to fisheries.
Observations
Despite the UK having allowed EU fishing boats full access to plunder UK territorial waters – including enormous factory ships hoovering up everything on the sea floor – it seems the EU’s fishing industry is in trouble.
It is quite some statement for the EU to say “The whole EU fleet is becoming virtually unprofitable.” Yet this was what was in the EU’s official statement on Friday.
Imagine how much more unprofitable it would be if the EU’s fishing fleet didn’t have access to some of the richest marine resources in the world – those in the United Kingdom’s territorial waters?
Perhaps we should say that if the EU's fleet is too expensive to put to sea, then they should give back the quotas granted to them as part of the exit deal.
The EU's ‘Green Deal’
With the EU Commission’s obsession with its green agenda it seems they have a lot in common with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson – and his wife.
For some time now, media commentators have increasingly speculated whether the PM’s apparent conversion to the ‘climate change’ agenda might possibly have been influenced by his ‘eco-warrior’ wife, Carrie Symonds.
If the EU’s fisheries industry is struggling to the point where it is “becoming virtually unprofitable”, surely the last thing it needs is a set of further restrictions in order to be brought into Ursula von der Leyen’s green agenda?
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[ Sources: EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 01 Apr 2022
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