Big Five, Big Money: When Brexit subsidies fuel electric trawlers and Dutch fishing giants

20 May 2025

Bis repetita.

Following the discovery of extensive COVID aid fraud in 2022,[1] BLOOM’s explosive new investigation reveals a major financial scandal and serious malfunctions in the industrial fishing sector in the Netherlands, linked to public authorities. Our analysis of the European subsidies granted in the context of Brexit under the Dutch ministerial decrees of 25 July 2022[2] and 12 April 2023[3] reveals how public aid, intended to support struggling fishers, was largely captured by a handful of industrial giants and allocated abusively, even illegally. The 135 million euros in European funds that were supposed to alleviate the consequences of the loss of access to British waters and the reduction in fishing quotas for certain species for Dutch fishers were allocated to 51 vessels for dismantling (97.4 million euros) and to 71 vessels (36.5 million euros) for temporary cessation of fishing activity.[4]

>>>Read the study: Big Five, Big Money: When Brexit subsidies fuel electric trawlers and Dutch fishing giants<<<

Big Five take the prize

The main beneficiaries of this financial windfall are the supermajors of Dutch industrial fishing, the “BIG FIVE”[5] – Parlevliet & Van der Plas (P&P), Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family – who received 53.2 million euros of the 135 million euro package, or 40% of all subsidies paid out. Moreover, when we examine these subsidies by fishing method, two big winners stand out:

     1) Trawlers that have used electric fishing.

They are the main beneficiaries of Brexit subsidies, having received 69.4 million euros.[6] Bottom trawlers equipped with electrodes from 2007 onwards benefited from exemptions and illegal subsidies[7] for electric fishing (a fishing method that destroys marine ecosystems and artisanal fishing), banned in 2021 following a successful BLOOM campaign. These vessels were bankrupt back in 2006, when the Netherlands managed to secure dishonest exemptions from the EU to authorise the electrocution of marine life.

After illegally developing this destructive fishing method with public funds, and since its ban, electric trawlers are back to square one: bankruptcy.[8] Fuel prices and lower catches make trawling too energy-intensive and unprofitable. BLOOM has lodged a complaint with the European Commission against these illegal subsidies. After years of fighting by BLOOM and artisanal fishers, on 13 November 2024, the European Court of Justice condemned the Commission’s inaction in granting these illegal subsidies to Dutch electric fishing.[9] While the procedure to obtain reimbursement of these undue public subsidies is still underway, these new European subsidies constitute a real political and financial scandal. These vessels were not dismantled because of economic vulnerability cause by Brexit, but due to their extreme dependence on fuel and their inability to be profitable without the artifice of electric fishing’s technological hyper-efficiency. The Brexit scrapping scheme is being hijacked to force European taxpayers to financially compensate the owners of these fraudulent vessels.

     2) Pelagic trawlers, including giant factory ships, whose fishing activity has not been impacted by Brexit.

Six factory ships, measuring between 94 and 142 meters and all belonging to the industrial groups that make up the “Big Five”, received 22.6 million euros alone, i.e. 62% of the 36.5 million euros allocated for “temporary cessations”, which were distributed among 71 beneficiaries in total. Besides being unfair, this raid on funds is potentially illegal: our analyses reveal that these factory ships have not reduced or ceased, even temporarily, their fishing activities. Their time spent at dock has remained largely unchanged from previous years. Public money has therefore not compensated a loss of activity. On the contrary, subsidies have fed a system that diverts public aid to the detriment of those who need it. Furthermore, these six factory ships were still licensed to fish in British waters.

BLOOM warns the media, citizens and politicians of all nationalities about the system of misappropriation of public funds organized by the Dutch authorities to benefit rapacious industrialists who use European money to finance their destructive practices and models. This systemic collusion between the industrial fishing sector and public authorities has serious consequences for the European Union’s budget.

Brexit, an alibi to bail out unprofitable fleets at the taxpayers’ expense

Most of the public aid analyzed by BLOOM was not used to compensate vessels affected by Brexit, but to finance the scrapping of obsolete, unprofitable vessels. The decrease in quotas due to Brexit did not impact the fishing capacity of bottom trawlers. The fish stocks they target, such as sole and plaice, two species crucial to their turnover, are in such poor condition that the vessels were already unable, even before Brexit, to fish their allocated quotas. These bottom trawlers were structurally doomed: extremely energy-hungry, the use of electricity enabled them in extremis to postpone their demise by a few years. Therefore, Brexit did not weaken them: it merely provided a political opportunity to justify massive subsidies. Electric fishing is an emblematic case of the privatization of profits while socializing losses at the public’s expense.

The financial support given to these electric-fishing vessels is all the more worrying given that European Commissioner Costas Kadis and several Dutch MPs have openly declared their desire to reintroduce electric fishing. If this method were to be reauthorized, then shipowners who have benefited from Brexit aid could reinvest the money they have received to buy new vessels as early as 2028.[10]

Faced with industrial predation that threatens the ecological transition and the survival of artisanal fishers, public money must protect marine biodiversity and the ocean, the world’s greatest climate regulator, and not be misappropriated to finance the destruction of our common good.

Notes and references

[1] https://bloomassociation.org/mediapart-fraude-subventions-covid

[2] For the fleet exit plan: https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2022-19616.html

[3] For temporary cessation: https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2023-9390.html

[4] The remaining million corresponds to small projects and operating costs (not covered by this study)

[5] See our report The Big Five: https://www.bloomassociation.org/en/big-five-dutch-fishing-supermajors-predators

[6] Some of the trawlers that used electric fishing belonged to the “Big Five”.

[7] Between 2007 and 2021, the Dutch government granted 84 derogations to the industry to equip trawlers with electrodes, whereas the regulatory framework allowed only 15. What’s more, even these 15 “official” trawlers were supposed to carry out “scientific” fishing, which they never did. In this respect, it can be said that 100% of electric trawlers were illegal.

[8] https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/decommissioning-of-the-dutch-cutter-sector-impact-analysis-of-man

[9] https://bloomassociation.org/la-justice-europeenne-condamne-linaction-de-la-commission-sur-les-subventions-illegales-accordees-a-la-peche-electrique/

[10] A shipowner who has received dismantling aid has to wait five years before being able to reinvest in a vessel.