Estonia takes court action over fisheries funding
Commission says money from EU fund was not used in the correct way.
Estonia on Friday filed a complaint at the European Court of Justice against the European Union for suspending payments from the European Fisheries Fund (EFF).
The European Commission in May decided not to pay a €425,000 subsidy to Estonia because of concerns about investments in the fisheries sector.
The Commission says that Estonia spent money from the EFF on modernising vessels and on improving the working conditions and job security of 34 fishermen. The EFF was set up to help countries fulfill their Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) objectives of making the fisheries sector sustainable, boosting fishing companies, and protecting the marine environment. The Commission claims that repairing the engines of trawlers is not a legitimate use of money from the fund, which it says is for helping get new projects off the ground and not for dealing with ordinary running costs.
Estonia’s total EFF budget over the period 2007-13 was €113 million – €85m from the EU and €28m from private and government funding.
According to the Commission, the system of monitoring how the money is spent in Estonia has shortcomings too. Part of the Estonian government’s 2007-13 strategy was to increase its administrative capacity – mainly funded by EFF money. Resources from the national organisations were mostly used for integrating fisheries-related databases into a single system aimed at improving reporting and cross-checking.
Estonia has expanded satellite monitoring systems for the inspection of vessels and the time spent at sea, but this is done with money from the national Environmental Investment Centre (EIC), a foundation set up in 2000 by the Estonian ministry of finance that looks after the use of European environmental funds.
The fisheries sector is important for Estonia, with most of its fish coming from the Baltic Sea and north Atlantic.
The Estonian ministry of agriculture has been responsible for the implementation of the EFF. A monitoring committee was set up, led by the minister for agriculture – who at the time was Helir-Valdor Seeder of the centre-right. Ivari Padar, a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP), who took over as agriculture minister this year, said in a statement that the Commission’s accusations “are not true” and that investments have been made.
Urmas Paet, Estonia’s centre-right foreign minister, said the regulation is “interpreted differently”. He believes that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is the right body to look into the case.
If the ECJ rules in favour of the Commission, Estonia might need to take corrective measures and the Commission would also be able to terminate the grant either fully or partially.
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