Press Release        30th May 2006

Aquaculture Industry Must Not Pay for Political Blunder on EFF

At its Annual General Meeting in Copenhagen last week, the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers strongly criticised European Fisheries Ministers for lacking the economic foresight and political will to agree on a new European Fisheries Fund (EFF). The proposed EFF will use 3.8 billion euros over six years to develop Europe's under-resourced fisheries sector and, in particular, boost sustainable aquaculture to redress the European Union's large and increasing deficit in fish production. The delay caused by the failure in Brussels last week to agree on the details of the EFF's measures for wild fisheries will result in higher imports, reduced competitiveness and potential job losses, according to FEAP.

The Federation predicts that the low priority given to the EFF by EU governments will result in a delay of up to one year in the activation of the fund and that resources for aquaculture - geared to improving environmental management, marketing, increasing efficiency and developing output - will completely dry up in 2007.

The FEAP President, Mr John Stephanis, said, "European Aquaculture Producers operate in a market without subsidies and our taxes go to the central fund for the good of the community. The EFF was created to help thousands of small and medium sized enterprises across Europe develop their businesses so as to achieve the high EU standards of food safety and environmental management, improving operations to meet the challenges of increasing costs in the areas of fuel, labour and marketing. By delaying a decision on the EFF, European Governments are sending a very negative signal to the aquaculture community. Arguments about the European fleet have nothing to do with the development of sustainable aquaculture and we are victims of this situation. We estimate that this delay will ensure that the EFF, which was supposed to start on January 1^st 2007 will not now begin to operate at Member State level until at least November of next year, which is unacceptable."

"The delay in making a decision on the funds has nothing to do with Europe's aquaculture business or the provisions of the regulation relating to fish farming. Therefore, we feel our sector is being unfairly punished by Ministers who are out of touch with the needs of their constituent industries."

Mr Stephanis urged the European Commission to insist that

• all EU Member States submit the aquaculture portion of their national strategic plans for approval before September and
• that national Operational Programmes for aquaculture are separated from the fisheries elements and funding put in place to develop the EU aquaculture industry while the controversial elements of the wild fishery are dealt with elsewhere.

The FEAP's analysis of the delays is attached

For more information, Contact details:

FEAP Secretariat - Rue Nicolas Fossoul 54B, 4100 Boncelles, Belgium

Tel:+32 4 3382995

Email: secretariat@feap.info

Web: www.feap.info    www.aquamedia.org

FEAP's analysis of the effect of the failure to reach agreement on the EFF
by the Council of Ministers on 22^nd of May 2006

Action	Responsible authority	Timescale	Maximum cumulative time involved	Estimated from Adoption at September 2006 Council
Strategic Guidelines	Member State Governments	Within 3 months of publication of EFF Regulation (Article 14)	3	Dec 2006
National Strategic Plan	Member State Governments	Within 3 months of publication of EFF Regulation (Article 15)	3	Dec 2006
Acceptance by EC of National Plans	European Commission	Unknown - possibly up to 3 months?	3	March 2007
Operational Programme	Member State Governments	Within 3 months following adoption of National Plan (Article 20)	3	June 2007
Approval of Operational Programme	European Commission	Within 5 months of submission by Member State Governments (Article 20)	5	November 2007