HERALD TRIBUNE, 4/7/95

Compiled by Our Staff From Dispatches

BRUSSELS The European Commission accused Canada on Monday of failing to carry out an agreement to settle a dispute over fishing in international waters off Newfoundland's Grand Banks.

The commission, which negotiates for the 15-nation European Union, said the EU was carrying out control and enforcement measures but that Canada was dragging its feet over fixing catch quotas for turbot, or Greenland halibut.

"The Canadians are not behaving as the EU had expected. casting doubt on their good faith in implementing the April agreement in full," said a statement from the EU fisheries commissioner, Emma Bonino.

As part of a fish-sharing deal struck in April. the two sides are to meet in September. with their Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization partners, to portion out catch quotas for 1996.

But EU officials suspect that Ottawa is trying to muddy the waters, to put the EU in a weak position going into the meeting. Stock quotas have to he approved by all of the organization's 15 members.

The commission said the Canadians avoided discussing the allocation of 1996 catch quotas at a meeting in Brussels last week and instead attacked the EU for not taking action against two Spanish vessels that had allegedly broken fishing rules.

The Canadian allegations were rejected by the commission. The commission said it had taken legal action against one vessel and that the second complaint was received less than 72 hours before the meeting.

"It is unclear what game they are playing," Miss Bonino added.

But EU sources said that Canada could be trying to raise the stakes ahead of the final session of the United Nations conference on the conservation of straddling fish stocks. from July 24 to Aug. 4 in New York.

Relations between the two sides were tense in March and April after Ottawa accused European boats, mostly Spanish and Portuguese, of illegally overfishing and depleting the dwindling Grand Banks turbot stocks.

Ottawa's seizure of the Spanish trawler Estai on March 9 set off a trans-Atlantic feud.

(Reuters, AP)