Spain fishing fleet, Europe's largest, is using massive EU subsidies to "plunder" the oceans of the world, Greenpeace charged yesterday.

"Despite a collapse of European fish stocks and decades of promises to reduce capacity, Spain's industrial fishing has actually grown, fuelled by EU subsidies and short-sighted Spanish policies," the environmental group said in a report.

The report was released on the eve of an informal meeting of European Union fisheries ministers in the northwestern Spanish city of Vigo.

It said that about 400 Spanish vessels, representing more than half of the country's gross tonnage, fish outside the EU for at least 90 per cent of their time.

"Spain's fleet has grown into a voracious armada representing nearly a quarter of the entire EU fishing capacity," it said.

The fleet is twice the size of Britain's and three times Italy's, the next biggest fishing nations, and its largest trawlers "can haul in 3,000 tonnes of tuna per trip, double the annual catch of some Pacific nations".

Spain "is now plundering waters as far away as Antarctica and Africa using European taxpayers' money," Greenpeace said.

Between 2000 and 2006, the country received 46 per cent of EU subsidies to the sector, ahead of Italy and France, which got 11 and nine per cent respectively, Greenpeace said.

The bulk of EU fisheries subsidies went to the country's largest vessels, "instead of being used to support the much larger group of small-scale fishermen, generate employment or promote more environmentally-friendly fishing methods," it said.

About 200 European government officials, industry professionals and NGO representatives met in the northwestern city of La Coruna between Sunday and yesterday to discuss reforms of the sector, ahead of the ministerial conference in nearby Vigo.