Hundreds of professional fishermen sailed on their fishing boats in Thermaikos Gulf of Thessaloniki on Wednesday to protest a European Commission directive that burdens them with additional bureaucracy and sets consumers’ health at risk.
In a widespread mobilization thought out Greece, protesters say that the new directive requires the mandatory use of certified scales, complex administrative procedures and that fish is thawed twice before it comes to consumer’s plate.
Fishermen will need to thaw the products they fished and froze on board, weigh them in front of authorities at the ports and freeze them again.
Kostantis Pagonis, president of the fishermen, told media “it is a historic day for fishing, as we have all gathered together and we are demonstrating for one and only purpose, the prevention of the legislation on weighing as it is both inapplicable to fishing at the moment with the way we work and is dangerous also from a health perspective.”
“We currently channel the fish either to the fish market or to the first retail sale, we know and weigh them with a degree of 98% accuracy,” Pagonis stressed.
“The European directive forces us to do another process, which is time-consuming and there is a risk to the catch,” the fishermen president emphasized.
According to the president of the coastal fishermen of Nea Krini, Dimitris Tsipouras, they are obliged to install certified scales on their boats.
“When the boats tie up, we should call the port authority to weigh the goods in front of them. This is a time-consuming process, while you cannot have frozen fish, thaw it to weigh it and then freeze it again. There is also a health issue arising from this process,” he reportedly said.
“Fishing has gone downhill by 80% and now comes this unbearable law that affects us first of all financially. A scale can cost from 200 to 7,000 euros,” he stressed.
“This is an absurd measure. Beyond the basic cost of the scales, there is also the annual ISO certification, which until completed, it leads to a cessation of fishing activity for each fisherman for 10 to 15 days,” pointed out Yiannis Daniilidis, representative of the Panhellenic Association of Coastal Fishermen and Fishing Tourism of Greece.
“It is an absurd measure that the government must take back,” he stressed.
According to fishermen associations, they are open to dialogue with the minister, there is a willingness to talk and we are peacefully protesting so that our voices can be heard, we hope for a meeting to find a suitable solution,”
The fishermen declare their determination to escalate their mobilizations, while Deputy Minister of Rural Development & Food, Dionysis Stamenitis, told state broadcaster ERT that “the European Commission will be asked to amend the directive, after the consultation that will take place today with fishermen.”
This new Directive is most likely am upgrade of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of the European Union (EU) that sets quotas for which member states are allowed to catch each type of fish, as well as encouraging the fishing industry by various market interventions.
The EU requires Greek fishermen to weigh and record catches all year round and provide the data to the Commission, so that it will monitor fish stocks in the Aegean Sea, is a common speculation among protesters.
It should be noted that fishermen have to enter an application to record every month for each species what they caught and how many kilos. the measure affects even coastal fishermen with fishing boats. If they don’t comply, let’s say for a month, their license is not renewed.
On the occasion of the EU directive, the protesting professional fishermen pointed out at the “many hidden problems of the sector that torment and tire the Greek fishermen, from the increases in fuel to a legislation that is very strict in which the fisherman falls into many fines.
Fishermen protests were held in several port cities and islands throughout Greece.
PS Twice thawed fish? Thanks, No thanks!
