No EU aid for extraordinary or permanent cessation of fishing activities

A joint letter from NGOs arguing that subsidies for the extraordinary and permanent cessation of fishing activities are harmful, difficult to control, and often fail to reduce fishing capacity, potentially rewarding overfishing instead.

• Subsidies for extraordinary cessation are criticized for artificially maintaining excessive fishing capacity and failing to address the root causes of overfishing. The document notes that as early as 1994, the Court of Auditors found such aid was sometimes granted when fishers would not have been fishing regardless.
• Permanent cessation subsidies, intended to tackle overcapacity through vessel scrapping or decommissioning, have historically been ineffective. Between 1994 and 2013, the EU spent 2.73 billion euro on vessel scrapping, yet fishing capacity continued to increase by approximately 3% annually.
• There is a significant risk that funds for permanent cessation are reinvested into new or modernized vessels, which can lead to an overall increase in fishing capacity despite the scrapping of a single vessel.
• The authors advocate for the continuation of the phase-out of these subsidies, which began on 31 December 2017, arguing that they should not be reintroduced without solid evidence of control mechanisms that prevent reinvestment in capacity-enhancing activities.

APA

ClientEarth (2019). No EU aid for extraordinary or permanent cessation of fishing activities. https://www.clientearth.org/media/muwgyqyy/joint-ngo-letter-to-meps-on-eu-aid-for-extraordinary-and-permanent-cessation-of-fishing-activities-coll-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. No EU aid for extraordinary or permanent cessation of fishing activities. 2019. https://www.clientearth.org/media/muwgyqyy/joint-ngo-letter-to-meps-on-eu-aid-for-extraordinary-and-permanent-cessation-of-fishing-activities-coll-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=ClientEarth |title=No EU aid for extraordinary or permanent cessation of fishing activities |date=19 February 2019 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/muwgyqyy/joint-ngo-letter-to-meps-on-eu-aid-for-extraordinary-and-permanent-cessation-of-fishing-activities-coll-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{clientearth2019aid, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{No EU aid for extraordinary or permanent cessation of fishing activities}}, publisher = {ClientEarth}, year = {2019}, month = feb, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/muwgyqyy/joint-ngo-letter-to-meps-on-eu-aid-for-extraordinary-and-permanent-cessation-of-fishing-activities-coll-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }