Barrett to table new fisheries plan

IN BRUSSELS today, the Minister for the Marine will attempt to break the deadlock in EU negotiations over controversial proposals to cut back the overall size of the fishing fleet. In his role as President of the Council of Ministers Mr Barrett has prepared compromise proposals.

The revised proposals, to be tabled by the Irish presidency in Brussels this morning, advocate a more flexible arrangement, based on conservation.

They suggest that member states should be allowed to negotiate a combination of reduced fishing effort and/or fleet cuts, with a 20 per cent reduction in catching stocks under particular pressure.

The EU Fisheries Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, has been seeking a 40 per cent cut in fleet and in catches over six years right across the board. As the Irish delegation left for Brussels yesterday, it was awaiting a political reaction from the commissioner to its alternative.

The commissioner's proposal, which has been totally rejected by member states, is perceived to be based on economic, rather than ecological, grounds. Ireland believes the Commission has no remit to deal with the economic viability of individual fleets.

The Irish compromise identifies those fish stocks at risk of depletion, or currently being overfished, in 11 sea areas within the European pond, such as mackerel, cod and hake.

Under the measure, an "effort reduction target" would be calculated for fleets working those affected stocks in certain sectors. A built in weighting mechanism would ensure that the actual reduction target for vessels was a proportion of the overall.

The initiative would run for an initial three years, with a midterm review, rather than the cuts sought by the Commission over six years, and would allow for special treatment of small scale coastal fishing vessels.

Ireland expects outline political support for the proposal, but there is doubt as to whether an agreement can be reached at today's EU fisheries council.

The next, and final, council before Ireland relinquishes the presidency will be preoccupied with annual quotas. Yesterday, the Fianna Fail MEP for Connacht/ Ulster and vice president of the parliament's fisheries committee, Mr Pat The Cope Gallagher, said the EU Commission's own proposal must be "utterly defeated".

Such a move would, if implemented, lead to 720 jobs losses annually in the Irish fishing sector, he said. It was unacceptable that Ireland should have to pay for ruthless overfishing by other EU countries with no adequate compensation in place.

Referring to the proposal to exempt boats below seven metres in length from any future EU fleet cuts, Mr Gallagher said this was "particularly cruel", given that it was utterly unsafe for any vessel to fish in treacherous Irish waters if below seven metres in length.