Ministers from seven European Union countries urged more state aid for fishermen hit by higher fuel prices today, with Italy and France calling for assistance to be more than tripled.
The increase is among proposals from fisheries ministers from France, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Malta aimed at helping the industry cope with diesel prices that have risen 240 per cent since 2004.
The proposals will be sent to a full meeting of bloc agriculture ministers on June 23rd and 24th. Many fishermen have been striking to protest the rising costs.
"We have a serious crisis in the fisheries sector because of high fuel costs, so we need quick measures to save this sector," Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia told a news conference after the ministers met.
Italy wants the EU to allow fishermen to receive up to €100,000 in aid spread over three years without a national government facing scrutiny from European Commission market regulators. The permitted level now is €30,000 over three years.
France's position is the same, Iztok Jarc, Slovenia's agriculture minister and the meeting's president, told reporters.
Other proposals include the introduction of more fuel-efficient vessels, increased funds to pay for temporary halts to fishing and stability measures for fuel prices.
French agriculture minister Michel Barnier said ministers also backed greater EU transparency over such issues as a ban on bluefin tuna trawling in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic that took effect yesterday.
France has objected to the halt. About 300 Malta-based Italian and French fishermen protested outside the EU mission in Malta on Tuesday over the decision.
Zaia said Italy was readying a €257 million package to aid its fishermen, including retirement of obsolete vessels.
Enzo Fornaro, head of Federcopesca Veneto, a regional fishermen's association, said fuel prices had risen 40 per cent in six or seven months. Fuel now made up half of costs.
He said the sector needed increased investment and research and development, as well as the scrapping of old boats.
"This is inevitable but we want to limit the bleeding," Fornaro told Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting.
French fishermen demanding cheaper fuel have been blockading ports, disrupting traffic on land and sea and have blocked the fuel depot of France's biggest oil refinery. Italian and Portuguese fishermen have also staged strikes.
Here in Ireland, fishing skippers and crew have agreed to a further suspension of threatened port protests, pending the outcome of Irish negotiations at the forthcoming EU Fisheries Council meeting.