The presidency of the EU Council will inform the European Parliament that should it adopt its position as EU ambassadors have agreed the Council’s position on a proposal to help tackle the negative impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the fishery and aquaculture sector. The Council will approve the European Parliament’s position and the act shall be adopted in the wording which corresponds to the European Parliament’s position.
The presidency is also asking the European Parliament to use the urgent procedure to push through proposals that will amend the regulation on the European maritime and fisheries fund (EMFF) and the regulation on the common market organisation (CMO).
The specific EMFF measures in the proposal are complemented by an amendment to the CMO regulation which makes possible the resort to the storage mechanism if member states have not set and published trigger prices, and allows aquaculture producer organisations to benefit from the storage mechanism. The proposal also provides for expenditure for the operations supported under these measures to be eligible as of 1st February 2020.
‘We have to ensure that the current crisis does not cause irreparable damage to communities where fishery and aquaculture are the main economic activities,’ said Croatia’s Minister or Agriculture Marija Vučković.
‘The proposal endorsed today will provide financial support to EU fishermen and aquaculture farmers to help them overcome the economic challenges caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.’
The proposal introduces specific measures of support in relation to the temporary cessation of fishing activities with a maximum co-financing rate of 75 % of eligible public expenditure, support in relation to the temporary suspension or reduction of aquaculture production and sales, support to producer organisations and associations of producer organisations for the storage of fishery and aquaculture products, and increasing the quantities eligible for storage aid to 25 % of the annual quantities of the products concerned.
The Council position agreed has added amendments to the proposal, which are inclusion of fishermen on foot (mostly women) as eligible for support in case of temporary cessation, derogation for temporary cessation for new vessels, flexibility in order to use 10% of the budgetary funds allocated to Union Priority 3, and granting working capital and compensating the reduction of sales and additional storage costs for aquaculture farmers.
