Southern EU states to meet on fishing aid Tuesday
ROME (Reuters) - Ministers from seven European countries will meet on Tuesday to seek ways to help fishermen, many of whom have been striking over rising fuel costs.
The Italian Agriculture Ministry said on Friday it would host the meeting in Venice, to be attended by ministers from France, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Malta.
The ministers will aim to identify measures to ease the "grave emergency" caused by high fuel costs, which they will present to EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg at a full EU ministerial meeting in Luxembourg on June 23-24.
France is leading the push for a change in EU limits on state aid to allow countries to bail out fishermen who say they face bankruptcy due to soaring fuel costs.
"The current ceiling of national aid should be increased," France's Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier said after an EU farm ministers' meeting last month.
Fishermen clashed with police at a fuel price demonstration in Brussels last week. At least 10 protesters were arrested in the scuffles in the city's EU district, where a car was overturned and windows smashed.
French fishermen fighting for cheaper fuel have been blockading ports, disrupting traffic on land and sea, and have also blocked the fuel depot of France's largest oil refinery. Italian fishermen have also staged strikes.
