New criteria for Fisheries fund allocation
The Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers has backed today 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.
