EU subsidies driving fossil fuel use in fishing sector should be ended – NGO report

The EU should introduce a fossil fuel tax for the fishing industry under a revised energy taxation directive which would generate up to €1.4 billion annually, according to a report by an NGO campaigning for sustainable fisheries.

By cutting fuel subsidies, the EU could generate between €653 million and €1.4 billion in revenue, which could be used to pay the salaries 20,000 fishers engaged in sustainable fishing or fund more than 6,000 energy reduction and decarbonisation projects, the report published on Wednesday finds.

Commissioned by the Our Fish campaign and authored by independent researchers, it details how EU Member States could fund “a more ecologically sustainable and socially equitable and resilient fishing industry by removing fuel tax subsidies”.

It includes case studies for France, Spain and Germany and demonstrates that between 2010 and 2020, the EU fishing fleet including Ireland was exempted from paying up to €15.7 billion in fuel taxes. “In the proposal for a revised energy taxation directive, the proposed tax rate for fishing industry fuel is as low as 3.6 cents per litre; approximately 20 times lower than average tax rates used for road transport (67 cents per litre),” it concludes.

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Removing fuel subsidies, however, does not necessarily mean a reduction in overall support for the fisheries sector, it adds. “We calculated the avoided taxes for the EU large and small-scale fleet over the period 2010-2020 for three different scenarios of taxation and then, used the results to illustrate what could be done differently and with vastly greater social benefit than fossil fuel subsidies,” said report co-author Laura Elsler.

“The data clearly shows that by supporting the biggest emitters, fuel subsidies stand in the way of a transition to low-carbon fisheries,” she added.

“The EU could provide more of the subsidies that help shift from unsustainable and unprofitable fishing to income-supporting and environmentally sound use of public money,” said co-author Maartje Oostdijk of the University of Iceland.

“Ramping up alternative subsidies such as fleet decarbonisation, support of fishers and other schemes can have clear benefits for humans and the environment, with an impact higher than fuel subsidies,” she added.

The review of the directive was critical to ensuring EU legislation was up to date and it could deliver on its commitment to current and future generations to take action to end the climate crisis, said Our Fish programme director Rebecca Hubbard.

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The EU has, for decades, supported consumption of fossil fuels by subsidising fuel for the fishing industry, she added. “Subsidising fossil fuel use does no favours to the fishing industry or our communities because alternative subsidies can deliver better outcomes for fishers, the environment and the climate.”

“Member States who have important small-scale fishing fleets such as Spain, France, and Germany could have instead invested the revenue generated by fuel tax to pay annual salaries, train fishers professionally, support low-impact fishing projects, energy reduction and decarbonisation, regenerative practice and fisheries management initiatives and achieved an average impact 188 per cent higher than fuel subsidies”, Ms Hubbard added.

Since the EU fishing fleet is currently very profitable and the large-scale fleet are the ones benefiting most from fuel subsidies, they could better support their small-scale fisheries with alternative subsidies, delivering improved socio-economic conditions and accelerating an urgently-needed decarbonisation of the EU fishing fleet, she underlined.