The Future of Our Inshore Fisheries
The Future of Our Inshore Fisheries Conference will be held in London on 8th/9th October. Your…
The National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations
The experience of NFFO members, not just the NFFO, would seem to suggest that the MMO team dealing with the EFF is currently under-resourced.
MEMO FOR THE EFF PMC MEETING ON 12 JUNE 2013
INTRODUCTION
The experience of NFFO members, not just the NFFO, would seem to suggest that the MMO team dealing with the EFF is currently under-resourced.
In general, this has resulted in negative experiences for NFFO members with respect to:
As a result the perception of the utility of applying for EFF funding, particularly among small businesses, is extremely negative.
POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS
There would appear to be a number of possible explanations beyond the purely resource related factors.
These could include:
In this respect it would be helpful for the PMC to receive details of the average length of time, from initial contact through application, the completion of documentation, project completion, verification and disbursement by category of project (value / life of asset / Axis). It would also be desirable for such figures to cover the trend over time on an annual basis to establish whether matters had improved.
NFFO’S EXPERIENCE
Whilst the NFFO’s experience is chiefly coloured by the PFD project, there are also other projects with which is concerned.
The points that it would like to highlight are:
IMPLICATIONS
The net effect of these negative experiences is to underline the impression that the EFF is not designed for the SMEs in the catching sector and that it is not worthwhile wasting time applying for funding.
Given this situation, and the likely shape of EMFF, something needs to be done to simplify the process and speed up response times, or, alternatively, to consecrate more resources to assisting SMEs in the application process (particularly in dealing with discards). Otherwise interest in the EMFF will be minimal.
07/06/2013
The NFFO would be interested in receiving members' comments on their experience with the EFF application process.