Northern Ireland Seafood is partly funded by the European Union through the Northern Ireland programme for Building Sustainable Prosperity (BSP).

A special package of European Funding was awarded to Northern Ireland at the Berlin Summit in March 1999. The Northern Ireland Community Support Framework (CSF) sets out the broad strategy for the use of this money and defines priorities for the two Operational Programmes within it. The BSP Operational Programme sets out how the responsible authorities in Northern Ireland intend to address these priorities through the Northern Ireland Programme for Building Sustainable Prosperity

In relation to the fishing industry, Measures are directed towards:-

(A) Continuing attention to balancing the scale of fishing effort against available stocks;

(B) Upgrading, securing and enhancing the infrastructure needed to underpin the needs of the catching and processing sectors;

(C) A clear focus on quality at every stage of the industry;

(D) Support for collective actions in all sectors.