BRUSSELS, April 22 (Reuter) - Britain launched a strong attack on Monday against so-called "quota hoppers" from Spain and other European Union countries that bought British fishing vessels in order to claim British fishing quotas. "It's clearly a ludicrous situation whereby Spanish owned, crewed and skippered vessels sailing out of Spain and returning with their catch to Spain can fish against the U.K. national quota," Fisheries Minister Tony Baldry told reporters during an EU fisheries council. An estimated 150 quota hoppers, including Dutch and Belgians, have taken around 20 percent of Britain's fish catch quota off southwest England and in the North Sea. "That's clearly a crazy, ludicrous and wholly unacceptable situation," Baldry said, adding that Ireland had similar problems. Baldry reaffirmed that Britain would raise the issue at the intergovernmental conference to review the EU treaties, that started in Turin, Italy, last month. "We will seek by whatever means to get rid of quota hoppers," Baldry said

, adding that options included treaty or protocol changes. The Britishgovernment was angered last month when the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of 100 Spanish fishing enterprises, which were banned from British fishing grounds in 1989 even though they were on the British shipping register. EU Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino said technical experts will meet next week to discuss the problem. "It's possible to find a solution," Bonino told a news conference after a meeting of fisheries ministers. Bonino said that despite the Court's judgement it was possible to reduce the negative effect of quota hoppers but measures must not be discriminatory. Officials said Spanish and other quota hoppers could be required to land catches in Britain or respect British social security requirements.