France’s Secretary of State for the Sea Hervé Berville has announced an extension to the fuel aid mechanism into next year.
Fuel aid was implemented for the fishing industry in March this year as a response to the rising cost of fuel due to the war in Ukraine, and was scheduled to end on 15th November. It will now continue until February next year.
The proposal to extent fuel aid was put forward by Hervé Berville and approved by the Prime Minister. Fuel aid stays at €0.25 per litre and is available to commercial fishermen. This represents a financial commitment by the French state that could come to as much as €20 million, in addition to the €45 million already budgeted.
‘Faced with the multiple crises that the fishing sector is going through, the government takes its responsibilities seriously and listens to the concerns of the industry,’ Hervé Berville said.
‘With the extension of this aid and with the massive increase in the State aid ceiling, we are supporting our fishermen and our companies to survive. This situation shows us that if we want to ensure the sustainability of our fisheries and build their future so that this continues to contribute to France’s food sovereignty, a real industry strategy backed by a solidarity mechanism long-term needs to be put in place.’
A further increase in the cap on state aid has been obtained from the European Commission under the Ukraine framework.
This cap, which was €65,000 in July and which had been raised for the first time to €105,000, now increases to €330,000 per fishing company.
This opens fuel aid to more vessels and this can be fully applied to fishing companies with several vessels, which were previously excluded.
