December Council: Fuel Costs

The high price of fuel in the second half of the year has seriously retarded the initial signs of a more buoyant operating climate that had made a showing in the first six months. Along with other European fishermen’s associations, the NFFO has pressed the Commission to provide financial support whilst the fishing industry, adjusts to the new era of high energy costs. It is now clear that we can expect little relief from that source. Commissioner Borg told a meeting of industry representatives in Brussels recently that the Commission had “reached the legal limits of what the Commission is empowered to do”. This is precious little and in any event, the UK Government, along with a number of other northern countries, is politically and philosophically opposed to providing state aid, unless it is for things like wind farms. This leaves British fishing in a highly exposed position and disadvantageous position: unable to access European support, denied national support on the French model by our own Government, subject therefore to distorted competition, and unable to pass costs on to the consumer because most whitefish is sold under the auction.

In these circumstances the Federation has made the point that the very least that the Government could do would be to clear away additional burdens on the industry; light dues would be a good place to start. Introduced to support the long defunct Decca system, the removal of light dues would be a small but welcome step in the right direction.