Only independence will give Scottish fishermen an “fair share” of EU funding, according to Richard Lochhead.
The Scottish fisheries minister accused the UK Government of failing to stand up for interests north of the border.
He told MSPs yesterday that Scotland has 8% of European landings by value but received “only 1.4%” of the current European fisheries fund – 21 euros per tonne, the second lowest allocation.
Mr Lochhead said “unfortunately” the UK Government negotiates on Scotland’s behalf for funding.
“Many other countries whose fishing industries are not nearly as significant as ours receive much bigger shares of European fisheries funds while we get way below our fair share,” he said.
“That says a lot about the priorities of the UK Government and how those issues are decided.
“Therefore, we should have our own voice in Europe, so that we can get a fair share of European fisheries funds.”
Highlands and Islands Tory MSP Jamie McGrigor asked if he agreed that part of Scotland’s commitment to Europe was to support struggling fishing communities rather than subsidise successful ones like those in Scotland.
Mr Lochhead called Mr McGrigor’s intervention “startling” and said for a Tory MSP to stand up and say there was a justification for Scotland not getting its fair share “absolutely beggared belief”.
The previous day UK Fisheries Minister George Eustice had told MSPs that EU allocation of fisheries money was not based solely on landings and took in various different criteria such as decommissioning and poverty.
Earlier this week it was announced that Scotland’s share of EU allocations distributed within the UK would increase from 40% to 46%.