EU governments seek to weaken Commission proposal linking fisheries funding to environmental goals

BRUSSELS — EU national governments want to weaken a European Commission proposal linking funding for the fishing industry to broader environmental objectives under the bloc’s next long-term budget.

The move comes as political talks on the size of the EU budget and whether the bloc should prioritize green goals grow tense, with EU officials and diplomats aiming to strike a deal before the end of the year.

In its €2 trillion seven-year budget proposal — known as the multi-annual financial framework — the Commission set conditions for fisheries funding to ensure that EU money also contributes to the bloc's marine conservation and blue economy objectives.

But during a meeting of fisheries ministers on Tuesday, a majority of EU countries pushed back against this, arguing that EU money allocated for fisheries should prioritize efforts to modernize and increase their fleets while respecting the availability of fish stocks.

"It is in the best interest of our fishing and aquaculture sectors to deliver clarity on accessing funding in the future MFF," said Ireland's Martin Heydon, Ireland's minister for agriculture and fisheries.

The deal passed after EU countries agreed to make a last minute change to the compromise text to highlight that these funding rules for the fishing sector should "be duly taken into account" when applying the "Do No Significant Harm" rule to the overall EU budget, according to an internal document seen by POLITICO.

The change prompted some countries including the Netherlands and Sweden to not support the deal, however.

Marine conservation gap

As part of the long-term budget, EU countries have to submit so called National and Regional Partnership Plans, detailing how they intend to spend the EU’s cash to get the funds.

The European Commission wants those plans to "contribute to the activities as set out in the European Ocean Pact" — a policy framework aimed at protecting marine ecosystems and promoting the blue economy that the Commission published last year.

But according to an earlier draft of the governments' position obtained by POLITICO, the capitals prefer to keep funding for the Ocean Pact optional and instead opt for a general reference to EU money also promoting ocean sustainability.

The governments took out a specific requirement forcing member countries to consider both environmental standards and "the balance between the fishing capacity of the fleets and the available fishing opportunities" in their plans, the document shows.

"EU fisheries funding should primarily serve the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy," said Daniel Voces de Onaíndi, managing director at fishing industry association Europêche, arguing that marine conservation and research can be funded through other parts of the budget.

"Limited fisheries resources should not be diverted towards priorities or sectors already covered by other EU policies and funds," he added.

Green groups disagree, however. The government's position is "a recipe for more overfishing" said Dimitri Lami, a lawyer at the legal charity ClientEarth, adding that EU countries are "opening the door to public money for fleets that already have more fishing capacity than the fish stocks can actually sustain."