Speech to Parliament March 13th 2012 European Fisheries Fund

Speech to Parliament                                  March 13th 2012

European Fisheries Fund

The EFF has 4.3 billion Euros to spend on fishing over the period 2007 - 2013, covering scrapping of fishing vessels, aquaculture and inland fishing, sustainability and administration of the fund.

But fishing managed very well before the CFP was introduced; livings were made and fish was plentiful.

Since its inception in 1973, the CFP has introduced rules and regs to control fishing, now the EFF. Why, after allfishermen have been plying their trade for centuries without all this, and a viable industry has been passed down the generations. Fishermen are not stupid, they have looked after their stocks, just as a farmer looks after his livestock and land.

This proposal, of course, is a backdoor way of giving extra financial support to countries which have been bailed out. Bail out funds under EFSM will trigger this extra support from the EFF,- and yet more taxpayersmoney goes down the drain.

So this whole scheme, purporting to help fishing with more funds, is really an addition to bailouts, which aresupposed to be loans by way of bond issues with time limits for repayment. Does that mean that the extra EFF money will not be included in Bail out repayments? Does it mean that cash will be available without issuing bonds?

If so, EFF funding will be a gift to offset a debt. What kind of finance is that?    

Derek Clark  MEP                                                 13th March 2012

(Tuesday is Gadfly Dinner evening. Left restaurant at 9.00 pm, delivered speech at 9.45 pm, returned at 10.00 pm, to receive a certain amount of banter from colleagues who at least had the grace not to have consumed my first course)