REUTER 17/3/1995

BRUSSELS Canada's chief fisheries negotiators flew to Ottawa on Friday for consultations after one day of talks with the European Commission, raising the European Union's ire.

"At this stage of the negotiations, it is essential for our negotiating team...to consult with Canadian authorities," Jacques Roy, Canada's ambassador to the EU, said in a statement.

Roy also told a news briefing that Canada had requested a postponement of a special Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) meeting scheduled from March 22 to 24.

"It's an unacceptable position because we feel that all these matters should be dealt with in the mulitlateral framework," a Commission spokesman said.

"It doesn't give us much hope for a solution in the future." Roy said telephone contact would be maintained from Ottawa and that European Commission and Canadian experts would continue work on control and conservation measures on Friday.

"Yesterday, we made significant progress on conservation issues," Roy said. "We have discussed at length the kind of control and enforcement measures that are required to ensure conservation."

He declined to give details.

Roy made no mention of EU demands that Canada revoke recent unilateral fisheries protection measures.

On March 3 Canada applied measures introduced in May 1994 extending its jurisdiction beyond the 200 mile limit to Spanish and Portuguese vessels and three days later unilaterally imposed a 60 day ban on fishing for Greenland halibut while a solution was found to its dispute with Brussels.

The Commission spokesman, confirming the two sides were still talking at expert level, stressed that the key issue was what it called the illegality of the Canadian measures.

Canada and the Commission started talks on Thursday after the release of a Spanish trawler at the heart of the row.

The talks, which include the allocation of a 27,000 tonne 1995 quota for Greenland halibut, less than half last year's total catch, fixed by NAFO on February 1.

The EU objects it was given only 12 percent while Canada got 60 percent.

Canada's fisheries team was headed by Gordon Smith, deputy minister of foreign affairs and international trade, Bill Rowatt deputy minister of fisheries and oceans and Jim Bartleman, the prime minister's adviser for international affairs.