EU fisheries ministers fail to end subsidies that promote overfishing

BRUSSELS, October 24, 2012

At today’s EU Fisheries Council, ministers agreed to continue subsidising overfishing . Markus Knigge, adviser to the Pew Environment Group, issued the following statement in response:

“This summer, the EU joined with world leaders at the Rio Summit and the U.N. General Assembly to call for the elimination of harmful fishing subsidies. EU fisheries ministers today ignored this commitment to the world community by proposing to continue subsidies that increase fishing capacity and thus contribute to overfishing.

While we welcome the ministers’ call to only allocate aid to fishermen who follow the rules and regulations, we now look to the European Parliament to concentrate aid to stock recovery and management rather than exploitation.”