The Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers has backed new criteria for fisheries fund allocations.
Under the current European Fisheries Fund (EFF), the allocation distributed to Member States followed a cohesion approach: it took into account the GDP and as a result it privileged those Member States with a lower GDP.
For the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), whose aim is to accompany the implementation of the CFP Reform rather than to support regional development (other structural funds are better equipped for this purpose), the Commission has proposed to base the allocation of resources on a sectorial approach, taking into account criteria such as employment and production in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors and the share of small scale coastal fishing in the fishing fleet.
These new criteria will promote a level playing field among fishermen from all Member States and ensure proportional shares of the EMFF attributed to both fisheries and aquaculture sectors of each Member State.
Commissioner Maria Damanaki welcomed the compromise agreed by the Council and during a press conference she further pointed out that money dedicated to the outermost regions will increase by 50 per cent.
A total of EUR 192,500,000 will be attributed per year to compensate the outermost regions, out of which up to EUR 6,450,000 will be dedicated to the Azores and Madeira, EUR 8,70,000 for the Canary Islands and EUR 12,350,000 for the French outermost regions, including Mayotte.
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