EU fishery cuts to be hard fought

EU Fisheries Ministers yesterday put down markers that the 40 per cent cuts in the fishing fleet sought by the Commission will be hard fought.

In lunchtime informal discussions that opened the procedure for reviewing fishing quotas, most ministers told the Fisheries Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, that her recent proposals were unacceptable. All acknowledged the need, however, to match fishing effort to the sharply reduced stocks of fish in European waters.

The Minister for the Marine, Mr Barrett, argued that if the capacity cuts are to be effective they must not be applied across the board but at fleets "which are exerting unsustainable levels of effort on critical stocks."

Ireland argues that cuts in the underdeveloped Irish fleet will not have a significant effect on stocks, while curbing Spain's industrial fishing will.

Mr Barrett insisted that the Commission would have to ensure adequate compensation for affected coastal communities.

The issue now goes to specialist working groups and the Commission starts a dialogue with individual member states. It hopes to get a decision by October, but the prospects are slim.

Opposition to the capacity cuts is compounded in the British case by its concern over "quota hopping", the buying up of British quotas by foreign fishermen, mostly Spaniards. Some 46 per cent of the British hake quota is owned by Spaniards.

A British minister predicted that the Commission would not be able to get agreement on the proposals by the end of the year when the current programme runs out.

The British Fisheries Minister, Mr Tony Baldry, warns that Britain will not even discuss the proposed, unacceptable cuts until significant progress is made on the "crazy situation" over quotas.

In effect this means progress on another front - the treaty changing Inter Governmental Conference (IGC) - because the European Court of Justice has already ruled against British legal attempts to restrict the British quotas to British boats. Only a treaty change will allow it to do so. The IGC is not expected to complete its business until well into next year.

Mr Baldry said that he was very concerned at the scientific basis of the Commission's proposals. The report on which they were based, he said, made no reference to industrial fishing, which was causing the real damage to stocks.