Spain’s fishing fleet has long been a creature of the State subsidies. Today, it is the EU taxpayer and not Spain, who pays for much of the Spain’s bloated fishing industry.
During the 1930’s, fascist governments in Spain built up the fishing industry to provide protein for the people and provide jobs for the poor. Franco and his followers heavily subsidised the industry.
Today, Franco’s legacy lives on. The BBC’s Richard Black reports on how since 2000 Spain has got around 5.8 billion euro from the EU to pay for the building and destruction of much of its fleet.
The investigative journalists at the ICIJ have also documented a seemingly inexhaustible list of cases of how subsidies are given to build, renovate and scrap fishing vessels in Spain. They report on too many cases of fishermen caught, tried and convicted of serious illegal fishing activity still getting subsidies. Perhaps because most of the money the Spanish politicians and officials spent came from other countries weakened their resolve to make sure it was spent legally. But, politicians everywhere are often loose with other peoples money.
You can read Lotting the Seas here.
Strangely, in the UK press and political comment has been near silent. Perhaps, this is due to Party conference season, or maybe when governments across Europe are picking up the bill for the incompetence of others, the price tag of keeping alive a bankrupt fishing sector is all too easy a price to pay.