The fishermen claim they are victims of their county’s economic success.
So-called small-scale artisanal fishermen from the Istria County protested on Monday against the “unfair” behaviour of the Agriculture Ministry towards them, since of the 3,500 licenses for small-scale artisanal coastal fishing for this year, just 24 were awarded to Istria County.
“Given that the government awarded 3,500 licenses for small-scale artisanal coastal fishing in 2017, of which only 24 were assigned to the citizens of the Istria County, we would like to point out the unfair behaviour of the competent ministry towards the fishermen of Istria”, said the fishermen in a statement, which was issued by Marinko Lapov and Claudio Visinitin on behalf of more than 300 artisanal fishermen from the county.
They noted that the current system of criteria and scoring, based on the provisions of the rules on small-scale coastal fishing adopted in 2015, give excessive importance to the development index of local and regional government units in which fishermen live, which in itself does not determine the social status of fishermen and therefore cannot be the basis for awarding the benefits.
“Small-scale fishermen from Istria are discriminated against, and it can be said that we are being punished just because we live in a county which is economically developed. Such scoring system negates the particularities of tradition and leads to unequal development of different fishing areas in Croatia”, said the fishermen in the statement.
Artisanal fishermen of Istria County therefore propose the introduction of regional quotas pursuant to which all coastal regions would be equally represented in the number of licenses issued, as well as an annual audit which would determine the social status and place of residence of each beneficiary.
Noting that small-scale artisanal fishing had been included as part of the traditional and cultural heritage in the Register of the Ministry of Culture, small-scale fishermen of Istria County call on Agriculture Ministry and all relevant authorities to “stop using their bureaucratic tricks and misinterpretations of the agreement on the accession to the European Union, and to not deny the right to continue with the tradition which was maintained for decades by our fathers and grandfathers”.
