EU slashes red tape to speed cash aid to fishing industry
first minister to lobby westminster in bid to halt soaring cost of fuel
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The European Commission last night announced emergency measures to help the fishing industry through the fuel crisis.
Brussels is planning to slash red tape to speed cash aid to fleets and encourage a switch to more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly fishing methods.
There will also be emergency aid for trawlermen volunteering to halt fishing temporarily and EU market support to boost fish prices.
The measures do not answer the plea of fishermen – and the transport sector – for a cut in fuel taxes to ease the pain of soaring oil prices.
Meanwhile, First Minister Alex Salmond agreed yesterday to lobby the UK Government on behalf of the Scottish fishing, farming and haulage industries, to try to reduce the soaring price of fuel.
He promised representatives of the three industries – which have joined forces for the first time to protect thousands of their members – that he would raise the issue with Chancellor Alistair Darling.
Jim McLaren, president of the NFU Scotland, Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, and Phil Flanders, Scottish director of the Road Haulage Association, held a historic meeting with Mr Salmond at Bute House, the first minister’s official residence in Edinburgh.
Mr Armstrong told Mr Salmond that fuel prices were so high now that some fishing boats were using 50% of their gross turnover on fuel, which was “not tenable”.
“If that continues and we are left alone in the market, then we will have an unplanned collapse in areas of the fishing industry,” he said.
“That will take us away as a primary producer and history dictates that it won’t come back.”
The fuel coalition has identified six steps to alleviate fuel-price pressure on food producers, hauliers and consumers.
The measures include the UK Government scrapping plans to increase fuel duty by 2p a litre in October and introducing a fuel price regulator to supervise a system in which duty would fall as oil prices increased.
The coalition – which represents more than 9,000 farmers, 3,500 fishermen and 1,000 haulage firms – also wants EU legislation used to reduce fuel prices in rural areas.
Members would also like to see farmers qualifying for the same rebate on red diesel as their fishing counterparts.
Mr Flanders said: “The farming, fishing and haulage industries are struggling and we really need some help.”
Mr McLaren said fuel duty on red diesel used by farmers had risen 275% in 10 years compared with duty on road diesel, which had increased 33% in the same period.
“We are asking the Westminster government, who not only have the money but the mechanism, to reduce that duty,” he said. “It will affect people right across the country, not just rural dwellers, because much of the price of food and the increase we have seen in that is brought out by fuel price rises for farmers.”
Mr Salmond said it was “hugely significant” that three of Scotland’s key industries had come together to illustrate the extent of the pressure caused by rising fuel prices.
The farming and fishing industries contribute £2.5billion annually to the Scottish economy and employ more than 70,000 people. “I have said that I will take what I have heard today direct to the chancellor of the exchequer,” the first minister said.
“The arguments being made are extremely powerful to the long-term economic damage that could be done and therefore it is right and proper that the chancellor is asked to respond.”
Mr Salmond said there had been a “breakthrough” because Mr Darling had accepted yesterday, for the first time, that there had been a rise in the oil duty flowing in to the government – but had declined to reveal what it is.
“Nonetheless, my officials say that, on current oil prices, it is a £5,000million additional tax take on what he expected on the Budget three months ago.”
EU Fisheries Commissioner, Joe Borg, said the commission understood the need for co-ordinated action at EU level “to avert a severe crisis for the industry and to ensure the problem is not simply displaced but really tackled head-on”. That meant not just providing emergency relief but addressing the continuing underlying problem of “overcapacity”, which was “undermining all our attempts to get the industry back on a sustainable and profitable footing”.
A commission statement said it was vital to focus aid on the fleets that depended most on fuel. It said Brussels was proposing that the EU set up “fleet adjustment schemes”, under which limits on subsidies for decommissioning vessels would be lifted temporarily.
Under the scheme, aid would also be offered to vessel operators replacing larger, old vessels with smaller, more energy-efficient ones.
Also, “temporary cessation aid” would be available for all vessels for up to three months throughout the remainder of 2008, on condition that the vessels were part of a fisheries restructuring plan.
The rescue package comes on the eve of a massive demonstration by lorry drivers in Brussels. It is expected to involve 400 lorries blocking major routes into the city and about 4,000 demonstrators protesting against high oil prices.
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