As we went to print, there was no solution in sight for the fuel crisis which has hit fishermen in Spain.
An all-Spain group of fishing negotiators held a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) in mid-April. But FIS reports that the central government simply restated its commitment to grant aids to fishermen for May and June to compensate for the impact on the fishing sector following the diesel increases in 2004. Vessel owners and fishermen representatives left dissatisfied.
The fishermen proposed establishing a 'political price', no higher than €0.25 per litre, that is, one third lower than the current cost.
However the MAPA side said they were against political prices, arguing they were 'questionable and do not respond to the increasingly more open state of the market'. According to Alberto López GarcÃa Asenjo, director of Fishing Frameworks and Markets, the measures entail 'implications that should be carefully assessed'.
Delegates for the Galician Federation of Fishermen's Guilds warned the government that in Galicia, the whole fleet was considering the possibility of going ahead with protest action should an agreement not be forthcoming.
The situation is different in the Basque region since members of the fishing sector there said they had not planned to demonstrate, at least during April, because the coastal fleet was in full operation for the anchovy season, according to reports in the Diario Vasco.
According to Senén Touza, president of the National Organization of Fisheries Associations (ONAPE), the government is pushing 'a serious crisis situation beyond bearable limits'. He added that not only had the problem of the diesel price increase in 2004 not been resolved, but no solution had been presented towards palliating the impact of this year's increment.
The Galician delegates also asked the central government to press the European Union to allow subsidies for companies, such as social security payment reductions.
Meanwhile, MAPA's Minister Elena Espinosa stated the government was analysing alternative fuels as substitutes for diesel.
She said they were still evaluating whether the product (recycled vegetable oils etc), which has been offered by a private company, is a real alternative, according to the national news agency EFE.
