But during a meeting of fisheries ministers on Tuesday, a majority of EU countries pushed back against this, arguing that EU money allocated for fisheries should prioritize efforts to modernize and increase their fleets while respecting the availability of fish stocks.
“It is in the best interest of our fishing and aquaculture sectors to deliver clarity on accessing funding in the future MFF,” said Ireland’s Martin Heydon, Ireland’s minister for agriculture and fisheries.
The deal passed after EU countries agreed to make a last minute change to the compromise text to highlight that these funding rules for the fishing sector should “be duly taken into account” when applying the “Do No Significant Harm” rule to the overall EU budget, according to an internal document seen by POLITICO.
The change prompted some countries including the Netherlands and Sweden to not support the deal, however.
Marine conservation gap
As part of the long-term budget, EU countries have to submit so called National and Regional Partnership Plans, detailing how they intend to spend the EU’s cash to get the funds.
The European Commission wants those plans to “contribute to the activities as set out in the European Ocean Pact” — a policy framework aimed at protecting marine ecosystems and promoting the blue economy that the Commission published last year.