Information Bulletin
State Aid Ruling Blow to Shetland
The Shetland Community has been dealt a devastating blow by the European Commission who have ruled following an investigation that 78 young fishermen, 20 fishing vessels and a fish processing factory will be forced to repay upwards of a million pounds of investment (including compound interest on the amounts) made by the Council over the last 13 years. This follows the filing with the Commission of a detailed catalogue of alleged breach of state aid rules by an anonymous individual.
"We will fight this ruling in any way we can," said Council Convener Sandy Cluness today. "These investments were made by previous councils in good faith to encourage first time fishermen to get started, to assist in improving the standard of fishing vessels, and to help modernise our fish factories. I cannot believe that European politicians ever intended to use state aid rules in this way crippling the development of our traditional industries and threaten the sustainability of a peripheral community like Shetland. This is particularly galling in that individuals and businesses in our community are being punished for the Council deciding to use its oil funds for the specific purposes for which they were intended.”
The Council has fully cooperated with Europe in recent cases and has made a number of representations locally and most recently in Brussels with those concerned. It was never envisaged that a clawback on this scale would be ordered.
The Council intends to immediately ask our MSP and MP to raise our case in Holyrood and Westminster and also will be contacting those MEPs who have offered us assistance in the past. Sandy Cluness went on to say “not only are we very concerned with this specific outcome, but for the consequences to other investment schemes currently being operated and unless we can find a way to use our Oil Reserves to assist the development of our local economy I fear for the future of this community."
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