The European Union seemed further apart than ever Tuesday on bitterly contested plans to rescue levels of several species of fish, notably cod, from the brink of collapse.
EU agriculture ministers were deadlocked on the second day of a four-day meeting tackling reforms proposed by the European Commission to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which has been blamed for sparking the present crisis.
The EU’s executive arm says that after years of over-fishing, drastic changes are needed to prevent the disappearance from European waters of several species including cod, a culinary staple in Britain and Ireland.
EU Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler said there was no alternative to the quota cuts and CFP reform, which envisages more than 8 000 trawlers being taken out of operation with EU aid.
”During this week we are at a true crossroads,” he told reporters as the Brussels meeting got underway on Monday.
”These reforms are for the fishermen, because without fish, there will be no more fishermen,” he said.
But ministers from a ”friends of fishing” bloc in the EU — France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain — lined up against the proposals, which the industry says will spell ruin for thousands of coastal communities.
Britain is also opposed to drastic cuts that would see EU quotas for cod catches slashed by up to 80%. A 40% cut in flatfish catches and a 10% cut in the industrial fisheries segment is also foreseen by the Commission.
Brussels wants strengthened measures to police the new limits, including port inspections, complaining that fish stocks are now so low partly because trawlers have routinely cheated in their catches.
The Commission also wants to replace the CFP’s system of annual quotas, which it argues prevents long-term planning to replenish fish stocks, with multi-year targets for catches.
And in another bid to safeguard fish stocks, Brussels proposes to retire 8 600 vessels from the community fishing fleet from 2003 through 2006 at an estimated cost of 28 000 jobs.
In the face of vociferous opposition on the first day of the meeting, the EU’s Danish presidency held separate talks with each of the delegations on Tuesday. Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mariann Fischer Boel was huddled in what the EU calls ”confessional” sessions with her counterparts in a bid to formulate a compromise.
French Agriculture Minister Herve Gaymard warned that the four-day meeting could end in acrimonious failure.
”If we stick to an ideological approach, I don’t see how we can reach a compromise this week,” he said. – Sapa-AFP