By Anne-France White - 21st December 2006
Green groups say new 2007 EU fishing quotas will not halt falling fish stocks in EU seas.
EU fisheries ministers agreed on limited cuts to fisheries for next year in their traditional pre-Christmas quota haggle.
Agreement was reached in late-night talks after several concessions offered by the European commission, including a 14 per cent cut in North Sea cod catches.
Cod will also be protected by a cut in the number of days fishermen can spend at sea, and there will also be quota reductions for plaice and sole.
But the politicians stopped short of the total ban on cod fishing recommended by scientists.
At the same time, ministers agreed on increases in catches of northern hake by 20 per cent, and of Bay of Biscay sole by 12 per cent.
Fisheries commissioner Joe Borg said the EU was trying to balance the interests of the fishing industry and the environment.
“The result was a proposal that has been severely criticised by all sides - for being too drastic for some and too weak for others,” he said.
"Yet despite the difficulties, I believe that the agreement reached tonight reinforces our gradual but sustained approach to delivering sustainable fisheries,” he added.
British MEP Neil Parish, whose constituency in south west England includes many of Britain’s fishing ports, said the deal was “not as bad as expected for fishermen”.
But he called on the commission to get rid of the “annual farce of quota haggling”, which he said “means tonnes of dead fish will have to be perversely thrown overboard to satisfy EU quotas”.
Meanwhile, environmental lobbyists WWF rejected the quotas as “irresponsible”, arguing that reducing cod fishing by just 14 per cent “will accelerate the pace towards the specie's commercial extinction”.
“Political horse-trading on quotas continues while our oceans are facing a crisis, something both the commission and the fisheries ministers have again chosen to deny”, said WWF’s Carol Phua.
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