Around the world, public subsidies are granted to sustain the fishing industry and support its expansion. A large share of these subsidies harms ecosystems and jeopardises the future of fisheries themselves by encouraging fleet overcapacity and, more broadly, overfishing.[1]
In 2018, the global fishing sector received $35.4 billion in subsidies, with industrial fisheries alone receiving more than 80% of this amount, although they represent less than 20% of the total fleet.[2] At the European level, the fishing industry received over €29 billion in public aid over twenty years (2000-2020), 40–50% of which has been spent on capacity-building measures that have increased fishing opportunities.[3]
BLOOM is leading a European campaign to eliminate subsidies that support fisheries which destroy marine ecosystems, the climate and jobs, drive the transition towards a sustainable fishing model, and increase transparency over the use of public funding in the fisheries sector.
Read our policy brief on EU subsidies “From Net Losses to Net Gains”
Our objectives
1. Ending harmful subsidies that encourage the burning of fossil fuels, fleet overcapacity and overfishing
Indirect subsidies that encourage the burning of fossil fuels
While overfishing has been identified by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) as the leading cause of marine ecosystem destruction over the last fifty years,[4] the burning of fossil fuels has been identified as the leading cause of climate change. Despite this, fuel subsidies (including tax exemptions) account for the majority of subsidies allocated to the fishing sector worldwide (22%).[5]
Due to their heavy diesel consumption, trawlers are the highest CO₂ emitters in the fishing fleet and receive 70% of public subsidies, largely through their exemption from Domestic Consumption Tax on Energy Products (TICPE).[6]
BLOOM has developed a European campaign to support the gradual introduction of a tax on fossil fuels used by fishing vessels. Ideally, this tax should be based on the annual volume of fuel consumed by each vessel, in order to favour small-scale coastal fishing vessels, which consume less diesel, over the most energy-intensive vessels. Such a tax could generate €1.5 billion per year that could be redirected towards the ecological and social transition of European fisheries and the resilience of coastal communities.
Direct subsidies that encourage fleet overcapacity and overfishing
In 2018, global subsidies aimed at boosting fishing capacity amounted to $22.2 billion, over 80% of which went to large-scale industrial fisheries, leading to overfishing, ecosystem degradation and poor social investment. Despite the 2022 World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on fisheries subsidies, which came into force in 2025, to ban certain subsidies for Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, many harmful subsidies not covered by the agreement remain in place due to a lack of consensus, delaying the implementation of comprehensive global reform.[7]
At the European level, public funds continue to support capacity-enhancing measures, both directly and indirectly, even though their negative impacts have been well documented[8] and the European Court of Auditors has recommended ending support for the construction, acquisition or scrapping of vessels.[9]
In 2026, the EU is negotiating its budget for the 2028 – 2034 period under the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).[10] BLOOM advocates for the integration of new safeguards into future funding rules, including a ban on any new harmful or ambiguous subsidies, or any other form of financial support likely to encourage overfishing or overcapacity, in order to comply with SDG 14.6 and the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which entered into force in September 2025.
Public money should instead support activities that strengthen resilience and long-term economic viability. Ensuring that public money serves the public interest lies at the heart of BLOOM’s recommendations.
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- Read our last news update: “Energy Taxation Directive: Catastrophic adoption avoided but EU ministers fail to challenge fossil fuel subsidies”
- Read our policy brief on European subsidies: “From Net Losses to Net Gains”.
- Read our policy brief on French subsidies: “Against the current. How public action in France misses the challenges of the transition: a summary of public subsidies allocated to the French fisheries sector between 2020 and 2022”.
2. Achieving full transparency on fisheries subsidies
In order to eliminate harmful subsidies, it is essential to be able to identify them. However, the lack of transparency in the sector makes this process more difficult. In the absence of a harmonised and systematic system for collecting data on fisheries subsidies at the EU level, and due to a lack of transparent reporting by Member States, it remains very difficult to determine the precise amount, nature and beneficiaries of the aid allocated, as well as the projects funded.
This lack of transparency is a major obstacle to conducting a critical assessment of subsidies, as well as to identifying cases of misuse and fraud. Compliance with international obligations, notably SDG 14 and the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, adopted in June 2022 and entered into force in September 2025, requires consistent eligibility criteria, meaningful transparency and the effective application of all financial instruments. The EU, as a signatory to this agreement, must ensure that public funds do not support fisheries that fail to meet eligibility criteria and funding conditions, or that operate in breach of European law. To prevent such outcomes, funding must be subject to the highest standards of transparency.
This is why, as part of our European and French advocacy work, we are running a campaign to ensure the responsible use of public funds and the protection of public goods.
BLOOM advocates for future funding rules to include clear, comprehensive and binding mechanisms capable of guaranteeing full transparency in the allocation and use of European funds, State aid and all forms of direct or indirect subsidies. These mechanisms must be accompanied by effective monitoring and control tools, as well as adequate ressources for the competent authorities.
Read our report (only available in French): BLOOM sues the French State for abuse of power
3. Banning subsidies for destructive fishing methods and redirecting public funding towards small-scale coastal fishing and the sector’s transition
Bottom trawling is among the most destructive fishing methods. It relies on towed gear that scrapes the seabed, destroying everything in its path with no selectivity, while emitting colossal amounts of CO2.[11] Yet in France, despite their poor environmental, social and economic performance, large trawlers and seiners receive 70% of the European subsidies granted to the fishing sector each year, amounting to €135 million.[12] Researchers at the Institut agro Rennes-Angers who carried out the TRANSIPÊCHE assessment (2024), also showed that the viability of these same fleets depends directly on public aid, without which they would not be profitable.
The same study highlighted that small-scale coastal fishing, particularly methods using traps and lines, performs well across the board. It creates up to ten times more jobs and added value than large trawlers, whilst emitting 3 to 4 times less CO2.[13] Yet, although small-scale coastal fisheries represent 75% of the European fleet and exert less ecological pressure than industrial fishing, they received only 20% of European fisheries funding up to 2021.[14] The rest was captured by industrial operators to increase capacity and support some of the most energy-intensive and environmentally destructive techniques.
BLOOM has been campaigning for years to ban subsidies for destructive fishing methods through various channels, including research, policy advocacy, lobbying, coalitions with other organisations and public mobilisation. In 2019, we secured a ban on electric fishing in European waters, a practice that had previously been heavily subsidised.
Our campaign calls on the European Union and Member States to strengthen the conditions for granting subsidies, by linking them to measurable environmental and social outcomes. We recommend redirecting subsidies towards fisheries with a low impact on marine ecosystems, restricting support for energy-intensive gear, prioritising activities that generate greater socio-economic value, and funding the transition of vessels towards less destructive fishing practices, particularly static gear.
- Read our report: Breaking free from trawling.
- See our campaign to ban electric fishing in Europe
Find out more about our campaign on the social and ecological transition of fisheries.
4. Directing subsidies towards the protection and restoration of marine ecosystems
As the world’s largest carbon sink, the ocean is the primary regulator of the climate. The prosperity and profitability of fisheries depend on the good health of the ecosystems that ensure the abundance of fish stocks. Strengthening the resilience of these ecosystems is therefore essential to securing the future productivity of fisheries and reducing their vulnerability to environmental shocks.
However, EU policy has not yet incorporated the climate-regulating functions of marine ecosystems into its funding strategies. Member States have allocated only a marginal share of EU funds to the protection or restoration of marine habitats and fish stocks. According to a report published by the European Court of Auditors in 2020, the four Member States audited, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, had only used around 6% of their total funding under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF, 2014 – 2020) for conservation measures. Of this amount, less than 0.2% was spent on limiting the ecological impact of fishing.
Despite the EU’s stated objectives on marine protection and climate change mitigation,[15],[16],[17],[18] public funds continue to support operations that contribute directly or indirectly to degrading the oceans’ ability to sequester carbon. The next programming of European funds under the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) therefore represents a unique opportunity to channel fair and transparent subsidies towards sustainable fishing and the restoration of marine ecosystems.
Read our news update: “Fishing from the EU budget: beneficial, fair and transparent?”
Key figures
$35.4 billion in public subsidies was allocated to the global fishing sector in 2018, of which:
- 60% are harmful subsidies that encourage overcapacity and overfishing[19]
- 22% are fuel subsidies.[20]
Although they account for less than 20% of the global fleet, industrial fisheries have received over 80% of all subsidies.[21]
Take action
LET’S STOP SUBSIDISING FOSSIL FUELS
Despite the acceleration of climate disasters, which are becoming more severe and frequent, European governments still refuse to tackle the root cause of climate change: fossil fuels.
Instead, the European Union continues to subsidise fossil fuels, with governments effectively using our public money, i.e. the wealth generated by our work, to destroy our future. The most polluting sectors, such as aviation, fishing and shipping, still benefit from massive fossil fuel tax exemptions. This means that while the rest of us fill up our cars with taxed fuel, aeroplanes, fishing vessels and cargo ships pay no tax at all.
Introduced in the EU in the 1980s, these sector specific tax exemptions are now obsolete and represent a major hurdle to the energy transition of EU economies.
Sign our petition.
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Our latest news
8 July 2026 – A first test in the European Parliament for the EU Budget: Global Europe must not fund overseas industrial fishing
11 June 2026 – Exclusive analysis reveals how thirty years of European subsidies have wrecked the ocean and fishers
28 May 2026 – The shock doctrine: how the industrial fishing lobby puts the Iran war to work
22 May 2026 – A Historic Vote for the Baltic Sea, yet only a first step in the right direction
3 April 2026 – Fuel crisis: under pressure from the trawl lobby, the French government opens its chequebook
Find out more
- Notre campagne européenne (only available in French)
- Our international campaign
- Brittany’s Brexit Bounty: the scandal of French fisheries aid
- Analysis of COVID fisheries subsidies: the devastating favouritism of the French government
- Big Five, Big Money: when Brexit subsidies fuel electric trawlers and Dutch fishing giants
Our scientific studies and reports
Frédéric Le Manach, Laetitia Bisiaux, Sebastian Villasante, Claire Nouvian. Public subsidies have supported the development of electric trawling in Europe, Marine Policy, Volume 104, 2019, Pages 225–231, ISSN 0308-597X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.03.003.
Petition: https://petitions.bloomassociation.org/en/letter-vonderleyen
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NOTES
[1] FAO, Marine Fisheries and the law of the sea: a decade of change. Special chapter (revised) of The State of Food and Agriculture 1992, Rome, 1993. Available at: https://www.fao.org/4/u9345e/u9345e00.htm.
[2] Sumaila Ussif Rashid et al., “Updated estimates and analysis of global fisheries subsidies”, Marine Policy, 109, November 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103695.
[3] Daniel J Skerritt, Robert Arthur, Naazia Ebrahim, Valérie Le Brenne, Frédéric Le Manach, Anna Schuhbauer, Sebastián Villasante, U Rashid Sumaila, A 20-year retrospective on the provision of fisheries subsidies in the European Union, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 77, Issue 7-8, December 2020, Pages 2741–2752, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa142
[4] IPBES (2019) Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, available here: https://files.ipbes.net/ipbes-web-prod-public-files/2020-02/ipbes_global_assessment_report_summary_for_policymakers_fr.pdf.
[5] Sumaila et al. (2019) Updated estimates and analysis of global fisheries subsidies, available here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103695
[6] Ibid.
[7] BLOOM (2024) 11 Golden rules for truly social-ecological fisheries.
[8] Skerritt et al. A 20-year retrospective on the provision of fisheries subsidies in the European Union, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 77, Issue 7-8, December 2020, Pages 2741–2752, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa142
[9] European Court of Auditors, Have EU measures contributed to adapting the capacity of the fishing fleets to the available fishing opportunities?, Special Report No 12, Luxembourg, 2011, paragraphs 34–73 and conclusions; European Court of Auditors, Marine environment: EU protection is wide but not deep, Special Report No 26, Luxembourg, 2020, Executive Summary IV, paragraphs 77 to 81, paragraphs 95–96 and Recommendation 3; https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/maritime-affairs-fisheries
[10] https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/eu-budget/long-term-eu-budget/eu-budget-2028-2034_en?prefLang=fr
[11] https://bloomassociation.org/bloom-publie-le-premier-bilan-des-emissions-carbone-de-la-peche-francaise/
[12] Quemper, F., Levrel, H., Le Bras, Q., Mouillard, R., & Gascuel, D. (2025). Évaluation des performances environnementales, économiques et sociales des flottilles de pêche : Bilan France. Rapport du programme TransiPêche : Scénarios de transition écologique et sociale des pêches françaises (Les publications du Pôle halieutique, mer et littoral de L’Institut Agro, n° 56). L’Institut Agro Rennes-Angers
[13] Ibid.
[14] https://seas-at-risk.org/publications/study-power-structures-shaping-eu-fisheries-how-the-political-economy-favours-industrial-over-small-scale-low-impact-fishing/
[15] Action Plan – Protecting and restoring marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries
[16] EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive
[17] Nature Restoration Regulation;
[19] Sumaila et al. 2019. Updated estimates and analysis of global fisheries subsidies. Marine Policy, November 2019.
[20] Sumaila et al. 2019. Updated estimates and analysis of global fisheries subsidies. Marine Policy, November 2019.
[21] Source: Schuhbauer et al. 2020. The Global Fisheries Subsidies Divide Between Small- and Large-Scale Fisheries, Frontiers in Marine Science, September 2020.
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