Premier praises EU Canada fisheries deal

THE European Union's fisheries agreement with Canada was one of the world's best enforcement regimes and could be a model for the EU's own Common Fisheries Policy, the Newfoundland Premier, Mr Brian Tobin, has said in Dublin.

The agreement, which was hammered out after Canada's "turbot war" with the EU almost two years ago, has resulted in a dramatic drop in illegal fishing off Newfoundland. Some 50 to 60 violations a year, mainly by Spain, have fallen back to two arrests since the turbot war broke over the Canadian arrest of the Spanish trawler, Estai, on the high seas.

The EU Canada deal provides for 100 per cent fishery observer coverage on vessels licensed to fish off the Newfoundland Grand Banks. The UN treaty to protect migratory fish, yet to be ratified by the EU, also affords significant protection to coastal states like Ireland, Mr Tobin said.

Under the terms of the UN treaty, the coastal state has the right to interfere and hold vessels if a flag state is unable, or unwilling, to provide enforcement. Although aimed at protecting fish nursery grounds on the high seas, it has a direct application to the Irish Box, he said. Spain and Portugal have enjoyed access to the Irish Box since last January.

Mr Tobin, who was the high profile Canadian fisheries minister at the time that shots were fired over the bow of the Estai, has been critical of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy in the past. Now the Premier told The Irish Times that he acknowledged that the policy was controversial.

However, his advice to opponents of it would be to "make it work", as no coastal state could afford to go it alone in protecting stocks.

Mr Tobin was leading a Newfoundland trade delegation to Ireland over the weekend, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Taoiseach on Friday.