The Executive has paid to decommission boats

Members of the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee said Mr Finnie should ask for support from a �100m aid package it has approved.

They made the appeal at a meeting in Edinburgh, part of a fact-finding tour of the country.

However, Mr Finnie insisted that no new money was available to help the Scots fishing fleet.

Compensation package

He said that Westminster Treasury rules meant that any EU aid might lead to other executive budgets being hit.

The European Commission ratified a deal in December which will see cod catches in the North Sea cut by 45%, haddock catches halved and whiting catches reduced by two-thirds.

The agreement also means Scottish fishermen are only allowed to spend 15 days of every month at sea.

The Scottish Parliament responded to the cuts by announcing a �50m compensation package

It allocated �40m for decommissioning boats and only �10m for tie-up relief to help fishermen through the current situation.

If all of the proposals being put in place lead to the recovery of cod and other whitefish species, there could be no Scottish fishermen to benefit from that Tory MEP Struan Stevenson

The Scottish National Party and the Tories attacked the aid package and described it as a redundancy plan, not a recovery plan.

Tory MEP Struan Stevenson said any further quota reductions agreed at the next round of EU talks on the matter in December would sound the death knell for the Scottish fishing industry.

He said: "We used to have 70% of all the fisheries resources in European waters and it would be an absolute disaster if the Scottish whitefish fleet was allowed to collapse.

"If all of the proposals being put in place lead to the recovery of cod and other whitefish species, there could be no Scottish fishermen to benefit from that.

'Cynically betrayed'

"Communities that have survived for centuries in remote parts of rural Scotland, where there is no alternative to fishing, could be lost and that would be a cultural disaster for the whole of Scotland."

Nationalist MEP Ian Hudghton said the Scottish fishing fleet had been "brutally and cynically betrayed" at last year's quota talks.

He also repeated his party's demand for Mr Finnie to be allowed to lead the UK delegation at the next round of negotiations in December.

"I would hope at the very least that Ross Finnie would be leading and taking the final tactical decisions," he said.