Commission cuts fish quotas
fishing quotas on Tuesday after all-night talks that pitted
national interests against arguments that stocks were in grave
danger.
European Union governments agreed to hefty cuts to next year's fishing quotas on Tuesday after all-night talks that pitted national interests against arguments that stocks were in grave danger.
The agreed cuts were eventually less than sought by the European Commission, but the decision put more jobs at risk in an industry already struggling with over-capacity.
"After 28 hours of non-stop negotiations, reason has finally triumphed," EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler said.
"I am well aware the decided cuts in many allowable catches are tough for many European fishermen in the short term.
"They have decided to have less fish today to be able to fish more in the future once the stocks have recovered."
Ministers and representatives from the Commission argued through the night over an original proposal to trim the overall catch size by some 18 per cent.
EU officials were still working on the complex outcome of the deal but estimated the final reduction in the total catch to be somewhere around 12 per cent.
"We very much welcome the fact that the Commission's extreme proposal was constrained," Barry Deas, head of Britain's National Federation of Fishermen's Organisation, told Reuters.
"There was a balance between effective conservation and the viability of fishing fleets. There will undoubtedly be an impact on jobs but it is not as bad as it could have been."
The Commission argued that years of over-fishing had left 12 fish stocks -- defined as a species living in a particular fishing area -- close to extinction. Just one year ago, there were four or five stocks in such a perilous condition, it said.
Stocks of North Sea cod remained close to collapse and the catch quota, which was slashed by half this year, was maintained at the reduced level.
Other cuts were also severe. Cod quotas in the Kattegat zone were reduced by 55 per cent and quotas in the Irish Sea and the Bay of Biscay were reduced by 18 per cent.
Britain's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said its negotiators had convinced the Commission to alter proposals, forging an overall agreement more consistent with independent experts' scientific advice.
"We supported the Commission where the science was clear but I am pleased that the Commission has agreed to move where there was no justification for cuts," minister Elliot Morley said.
Ministers also agreed to a six-month extension to a programme to reduce national fleet sizes by capping the construction of new fishing vessels and tightening controls over public aid to finance them.
The Commission, which says the EU's fishing fleet is twice as big as it should be to catch a sustainable amount of fish, had proposed extending the programme for a year but met fierce opposition from France and Spain in particular.
