IN A bid to wade out of
troubled waters,
the UK is throwing a
bait to its fisherfolk.
If they agree to scrap
vessels and stop
fishing, they will
pocket a sum of us
$19.8 million. The move
follows the
recent, European Union
conference on
setting fishing quotas.
If the UK fails to
cut down 19 per cent of
its fishing fleet,
then it faces punitive
measures by the
European Commission at
the end of the
year. But the
fisherfolk's lobby is
blaming the excess fleet on
foreign ships buying British licences in
order to gain
access to UK fish
quotas. "Other member
states are exporting
their over-capacity
to us," said Barrie
Deas, chief executive
of the National
Federation of Fishermens' Organisations.
If the fisherfolks fail
to reduce their
fleet capacity then
they will not get the
benefits Of EU'S US
$1.66 billion scheme
for restructuring and
modernising
fleets. Under the
scheme, EU will provide
grants of up to 50 per
cent of the cost of
updating fishing
vessels.
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