BC FISH TALKS (SCHEDULED)/Prospects of early EU Canada fisheries deal ebbs

By Bert Lauwers

BRUSSELS, April 9 (Reuter) Prospects of an early end to a

bitter fisheries dispute between Canada and the European Union

dimmed on Sunday after Spanish sources said Madrid was still

objecting to an outline deal that would reduce its catch quota.

"Spanish officials are pessimistic about a deal. They think

Canada is being very inflexible," one source close to the talks

said.

EU sources said officials of the European Commission, the

EU's executive body, were nevertheless putting the finishing

touches to a proposal that would be placed before EU foreign

ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. But they added that no

"face to face" talks with Canadian officials were planned.

The EU's fisheries commissioner, Emma Bonino, was expected

to go to Luxembourg for talks with French Foreign Minister Alain

Juppe and Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana ahead of

Monday's meeting.

The draft proposal would cut Spain's total permitted catch

in the North Atlantic by around 75 percent this year compared to

1994 and rigorously step up on boat control and inspection.

Ottawa says such measures are needed to allow threatened

stocks on the once rich fields of the North Banks off

Newfoundland to recover, but Madrid says it would put at risk

the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in northern Spain's

Galicia region.

Diplomats said ministers could be asked to look at ways to

try to persuade Madrid to accept a compromise to end a dispute

triggered when Canada seized a Spanish trawler in early March.

But sources said a clash between a Canadian patrol boat and

a Spanish trawler off Newfoundland on Wednesday had again caused

tempers to flare and made public concessions even less likely.

Diplomats said it might be possible to raise Spain's quota

by giving it unused quotas now offered to other participants in

the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO).

"Spain has made a large concession on inspection, on there

may a way out by widening the debate," said one senior diplomat,

adding Spain would allow on boat inspectors to ensure

regulations were meticulously respected.

EU sources said France, the current holder of the presidency

of the EU's Council of Ministers, would examine possible

compromises with Spain, but they doubted a settlement would

emerge from Monday's one day meeting.

Britain has made clear it would block any trade sanctions

against Canada over the dispute, prompting accusations from

Madrid of a lack of European solidarity. Other states are keen

to avoid allowing the issue to trigger another internal EU row.

The current text, likely only to be presented verbally,

still contains no final agreement on exactly how much Greenland

halibut (turbot) all EU boats can catch in 1995.

Canada estimates that Spanish vessels, which take 80 percent

of the EU catch, have already caught the 10,000 tonnes which the

draft under discussion proposes as the EU's quota.

The EU says only 7,000 tonnes have been caught so far this

year and on Thursday set its own unilateral quota of 18,630

tonnes, almost 70 percent of the total catch set by the NAFO

which regulates fishing in the area.

Spain welcomed that EU decision but it objects strongly to

part of the draft accord which creates a "box" or fishing area,

partly located in northern international waters, where Canadian

fishermen, and only Canadians, would be allowed to take 7,000

tonnes of Greenland halibut in 1995.