EU:BRDO PRI KRANJU, SLOVENIA - France will propose changing EU state aid rules to the fisheries sector to help cushion the financial pain felt by fishermen due to spiralling fuel prices, its fisheries minister said yesterday.
French fishermen fighting for cheaper fuel have been blockading ports, disrupting traffic on land and sea, and have also blocked the fuel depot of France's largest oil refinery, demanding a 50 per cent cut in the price of marine diesel.
Backed by Italy, and possibly Spain, France is now drafting a proposal that would raise the amount of financial aid that a government may grant to its fisheries sector without attracting the robust scrutiny of internal market regulators in Brussels.
"The high diesel price is of concern to everybody in the fishing sector," France's fisheries minister Michel Barnier said.
"We will make a proposal . . . I feel a European response is necessary," he told a news conference in Slovenia. - ( Reuters)