EU Fisheries Subsidies Revealed in New Online Mapping Tool

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LONDON – Fishsubsidy.org today launched an interactive map that allows European citizens to track €3.4 billion in EU fisheries subsidies. The map shows 39,174 payments to vessels from 1994 to 2006 under the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG).

Users can select categories of payment (vessel construction, modernisation, scrapping, etc.) and see clearly the geographical distribution of funds, both across the continent and in member states, including the outermost regions. The map also provides summaries of all payments to individual ports with links to the vessel pages at fishsubsidy.org.

“This new resource reveals where the money went, identifying which regions and ports benefited most from fisheries subsidies. The largest subsidy recipients were in Spain, where public money has fuelled greater and greater fishing capacity, exerting ever more pressure on already depleted fish stocks,” said Markus Knigge of the Pew Environment Group. “Rather than propping up a subsidies-addicted industry, the EU should invest in conserving valuable fish stocks and securing the future viability of vulnerable fisheries-dependent communities.”

The maps cover payments only up to 2006. “Unfortunately, the new system of transparency that applies to the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) is deficient in a number of respects, the most important of which being that data disclosed no longer identifies the vessels for which subsidies were paid,” said Jack Thurston of EU Transparency.

The largest subsidy recipients were in Spain, where public money has fuelled greater and greater fishing capacity, exerting ever more pressure on already depleted fish stocks. Markus Knigge, the Pew Environment Group

Notes to editors

1. The map is available online at www.fishsubsidy.org/map. View full-screen version.
2. Fishsubsidy.org is a project coordinated by EU Transparency, a nonprofit organisation in the UK, and the Pew Environment Group. The aim is to obtain detailed data related to payments and recipients of fisheries subsidies in every EU member state and make this data available in a way that is useful to European citizens. Subsidies paid to owners of fishing vessels and others working in the fishing industry under the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy total about €1 billion a year. For more information, please visit www.fishsubsidy.org.
3. Detailed analysis of EU fisheries subsidies from 2000 to 2006 is available in “FIFG 2000-2006 Shadow Evaluation” (Cappell, R., T. Huntingdon and G. Macfadyen)
4. A list of vessels in the tuna fleet that receive EU subsidies is available at www.fishsubsidy.org/EU/tuna-fleet, and a list of vessels convicted of serious infringements (illegal fishing) is available at www.fishsubsidy.org/infringements.
5. The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a nongovernmental organisation that applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life.