After three years of crises around Covid, Brexit and energy, the French fishing sector is at boiling point. The National Fisheries Committee has organised a two-day shutdown – ‘Dead Days’ – of the industry, while also delivering a list of its aims, and demanding a meeting with the President.
This follows days of demonstration and port blockades as fishermen across France have vented their frustration.
The Committee hopes to mobilise support from the fishing sectors of other European nations, and the Dutch Fishermen’s Association had already announced its solidarity with their counterparts in France.
‘The fishing and seafood industries have been plagued by crises, Covid, Brexit and energy, for the last three years. What gets ignored is the economic and social reality facing fishing companies of broken promises, new legal decisions and changing political aims that weaken the sustainability of the industry,’ a CNPMEM representative said.
‘The existence of the fishing industry is threatened by constant harassment and piecemeal support without any vision for the future. This aggregation of standards, threats and disputes challenges the basis of our profession when our objective is to feed the French and European populations. We have had enough and we need to provide everyone in this sector with a future – because at the moment the outlook is bleak.’
Among the demands being put forward by the National Fisheries Committee are a meeting with the President – which had already been requested. The Committee also calls on industry figures to suspend their participation in environmental management bodies.
‘In the face of all these attacks, what response is there from the government and the authorities?’ the Committee’s representative asked.
Further demands are for an overhaul of the Marine Mammals Action Plan, a solution to the fuel situation and a number of other requests, and at European level the demand is for the European Commission to withdraw its proposals for curtailing demersal fisheries, as well as a revision of the landing obligation, for the de minimis ceiling on diesel to be lifted and for preparation to be carried out for the 2026 deadline for UK waters.
