Commissioner blames 'misunderstanding' over plans to save stocks

BRUSSELS RETREATS ON CUTS TO FISHING FLEETS

photo: Emma Bonino, European Commissioner for fisheries, said yesterday "We have too many fishermen and too few fish. But there is no consensus on the remedy"

By Caroline Southey in Brussels

The European Commission yesterday watered down demands for 40 per cent cuts in the size of European Union fishing fleets, insisting instead that the aim was to reduce overall fishing activity.

Ms Emma Bonino, European Commissioner for fisheries, said there had been a "misunderstanding" about proposals unveiled in May designed to protect depleting stocks in EU waters. The Commission was not seeking cuts of 40 per cent in fleet sizes but in catches, she added.

"Accusations that the Commission is wishing to break up 40 per cent of our fleets, sacrificing jobs and the means of production that could be used when stocks have recovered, are false," she said.

But Mr Douglas Hogg, UK farm and fisheries minister, said Britain would not implement any EU moves to reduce fish catches unless the problem of quota-hopping by foreign trawlers is resolved.

Mr Hogg, speaking after meeting South West fishing industry leaders in Plymouth, said Ms Bonino's proposals for the 40 per cent reduction in capacity would be "very unaceptable" to the Government.

Ms Bonino's comments come ahead of Monday's meeting of EU fisheries ministers in Luxembourg at which the proposals are expected to come under fierce attack.

EU officials predicted her intervention would not blunt ministers' anger. "There will be 100 per cent hostility to the 40 per cent figure no matter what it refers to," said an EU diplomat.

The Commission press release issued in May referred to "cuts in capacity" of 40 per cent for the most endangered stocks such as cod, haddock, sardines, salmon and hake.

Ms Bonino stressed that "reductions in fleet capacity are absolutely necessary" to achieve the cuts in catches. But she added: "We always made clear this could be accompanied by other actions, such as cutting days at sea."

The commissioner insisted there was agreement among member states that "we have too many fishermen and too few fish. But there is no consensus on the remedy".

She rejected the argument put by some EU countries that market forces would correct the structural imbalance, saying she believed market forces alone would impose a "law of the jungle" leading to an unequal decimation of fleets and decimation of stocks.

Ms Bonino said she recognised that fisheries ministries were "subjected to strong political pressure" because the cuts would lead to job losses. This was particularly difficult for coastal communities with few alternative sources of employment.

But she pointed out that a financial package of Ecu2.8bn between 1994 and 1999 had been proposed to soften the economic impact of restructuring, and that small coastal fishing boats had been excluded from the proposals.

She said evidence of illegal fishing off the northern Scottish coast shown on BBC television this week proved that over-capacity in the industry was forcing fisherman to "become poachers".