BRUSSELS, May 29 (Reuter) - Fleet capacity will have to be cut by up to 40 percent over the next six years to ensure the survival of the European Union's fishing industry, EU Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino said on Wednesday. The EU is providing some 3.1 billion Ecus ($3.8 billion) between 1994-99 to ease the pain of the cuts which will be shared between the EU states according to efforts already made to reduce surplus capacity. More aid for early retirement and other social measures will be given for the second phase of the fleet reduction programme between 2000 and 2002. "Member states which have already achieved reduction objectives will be less affected by future cuts," Bonino told a news conference. She said Spain, Portugal and Denmark were among countries which have met EU goals. But others, including Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands, were behind schedule and would have to make up the backlog. Britain is 18 percent over the EU tonnage target set for 1996 in the current five-year programme , Boni

no said. "Possible sanctions are not excluded," she said in response to a question. In reply to another question, Bonino attacked Britain's policy of disrupting EU business until it eases a worldwide ban on British beef exports. "Nobody likes to be seen as giving way to blackmail," Bonino told a news conference. "...It's very difficult for member states and for their own public opinion. They don't want to be seen as acting under blackmail or threat so i think the United Kingdom should review its attitude in the future.." Bonino's comments are likely to add extra tension to Britain's stormy relations with the EU. Earlier this month London warned it would block reforms on the future shape of the European Union unless its partners agreed to overhaul the bloc's fishing policies. Prime Minister John Major told the British parliament it was contrary to the original spirit of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) that fishermen from other EU countries could, quite legally, buy licensed British trawlers in order to land

fish as part of Britain's permitted quota. The Commission's proposal, which sets guidelines for fish species and type of vessel, is due to be discussed by EU fisheries ministers in Luxembourg on June 10 and could be adopted at a special ministerial meeting in mid-September. The sharpest cuts are planned for vessels fishing for salmon in all areas, sardines, swordfish and hake off the Spanish and Portuguese coasts and for all stocks in the Irish Sea. Specific cuts for 13 member states -- landlocked Luxembourg and Austria are excluded -- will then be negotiated and national fleet reduction programmes should be adopted by the end of 1996.