The financial aid granted in early April to fishermen in the face of soaring energy prices and after a protest movement will be extended until September 30, announced Friday the Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville, visiting in Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais), the leading French fishing port.
For four months, all players in the sector have received, in addition to the discount of 15 cents per liter of fuel granted to the French, an additional rebate of 20 cents. This was to end at the end of July but the government obtained the green light from the European Commission for its extension. Theoretically, a European state can only grant 65,000 euros in exceptional aid per fishing company. This ceiling will increase to 105,000 euros, which makes it possible to extend the fuel discount until the end of September.
“Rather satisfied”, fishermen ask “for long-term solutions”
With this device “the State is strongly committed with more than 18 million euros which are added to the more than 25 million euros which have been committed in recent months”, commented Hervé Berville. The Secretary of State, appointed last month, underlined that this choice to “defend the French fishing model” was not that made by “other countries which preferred to leave the boats at the quay because they a different social model.
“We are rather satisfied” with the extension of aid, but “we cannot be satisfied with infusions each time there are fuel increases”, commented Olivier Leprêtre, president of the Hauts-de-France fisheries committee. -France. “We want long-term solutions, that is to say a repercussion of the increase in fuel on the price of fish and ultimately on the consumer”, he continued.
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The conflict with London almost resolved
Hervé Berville assured that there were only “four licenses” left for post-Brexit fishing – allowing French fishermen to fish in British waters – to be issued. “We are not going to drop anything on the subject”, which fueled tensions between London and Paris in the spring, he assured.
In November, the Minister for the Sea Annick Girardin had mentioned the compensation of fishermen who would not obtain their license – a hundred in total requested from the British – with “fleet exit plans”.
The Secretary of State has indicated that he takes a “different” approach to the matter. “The only plan that I want to develop with the players is a modernization plan, an investment plan in the fleet”, which is “ageing, which is no longer as cutting edge as it could have been 20, 30 years old.
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