KYIV. Feb 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A bill to support fishing industry could be drawn up by the State Fish Agency jointly with the Reforms Delivery Office by the end of March 2017.
The agency said that the bill will envisage the creation of the fishing industry fund that would accumulate funds from the fishing industry and distribute them using transparent rules.
“The fund is to ensure the use of the funds received in the sector for targeted development: fish planting, soil reclamation and bio resources protection programs. Support of fishing farmers should be a separate direction,” State Fish Agency Head Yarema Kovaliv said.
He said that reports of the fund should be updated regularly and published online.
The agency said that in 2016 only UAH 3.8 million fines were imposed for violation of fishing rules. Funds from compensation for industrial fish catch and dredging works were also received.
“According to Ukrainian law, the collected funds are sent to the budget and often they are sent to the programs not linked to fishing industry. The sector does not have money for fish planting and soil reclamation programs. We propose a model that would effectively distribute the funds for the needs of the sector and support stable fish stocks,” Kovaliv said.
Reforms Delivery Office expert Yehor Luchinkin said that practice of specialized funds when the money are sent to fishing industry development programs is popular in Europe. There is the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) with a total budget of EUR 8.6 billion. The funds are distributed to local programs of EU member countries and EU countries also have local funds.
