|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Scottish anger over EU fish deal
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Angry Scottish fishing industry leaders have accused the European Commission of a "stitch up" over its decision to cut dramatically North Sea cod quotas. Hamish Morrison and Alex Smith of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) spoke out after emergency talks with Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell and fisheries minister Ross Finnie. Morrison, chief executive of the SFF, said there was nothing more Finnie could have done during crunch talks in Brussels last week to get a better deal for the Scots fishing fleet. He told the UK's Press Association: "Had Ross Finnie been the Archangel Gabriel he would not have got out of this any better than he did. The whole atmosphere of that discussion was that the Commission would get our fleet, right reason or none. "When they started buying off people around, you could see what was going to happen." Asked if the talks had been a "stitch up", Morrison replied: "Yes." Following five days of talks last week EU member states signed up to a deal which will see cod catches in the North Sea slashed by 45 percent from next year, while the haddock catch will be more than halved and whiting catches reduced by nearly two-thirds. Fishing boats will be allowed to spend no more than 15 days at sea each month, and only if the fleet agrees to decommission 20 percent of its trawlers. The Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Lord Steel, on Monday turned down a Scottish Nationalist (SNP) request for a recall of the parliament, which went into recess last Thursday. A parliament spokesman said the request had been made by Fiona Hyslop, the SNP's business manager. "The presiding officer has, however, been assured that a full statement will be made by the fisheries minister on January 8, parliament's first day in plenary session after the recess," said the spokesman. "By this time, the fisheries minister will have had the opportunity to meet representatives of the Scottish fishing industry, and parliament will be able to question the minister in detail." Morrison described Monday's talks as "very thorough" but insisted it was still very early days. Morrison said the fishing industry would also be seeking financial assistance for the skippers of fishing vessels and their crew to ensure they do not go out of business in the short term. He added: "The new priority is to keep the fleet operating and viable until these matters have had a chance to work through." Later Finnie said ministers were pressing the commission and other member states for early discussions on a "more reasoned and equitable" long-term plan for European fisheries. He conceded that the interim measures were "particularly pernicious" in their application to Scotland's large white fish fleet, but he refused to agree that the UK had been the victim of a "stitch-up." The minister also refused to give any details about what short-term assistance might be offered to those affected by the interim measures. It was "clearly in our interests" to ensure a longer-term recovery plan should be agreed by the Council of Ministers by March 31 -- as required by last week's regulation -- to be in place the second half of next year, Finnie said. Finnie suggested a further targeted decommissioning of some of the UK fleet, perhaps as much as 15 percent, would strengthen the UK's negotiating position in those talks. Asked if UK ministers had been the victim of a stitch-up, Finnie said only that he had argued for a "more measured solution" that was "perfectly credible" in terms of conservation. "The Commission took a very different stance. The 100 percent total closure was in their opinion a preferred solution and really their moving from 100 percent to 80 percent, and then to 65, 68 percent, they regarded that as a very substantial move. "It is for others I think to interpret as to whether that conclusion was a stitch-up. I think that they believed that position. I argued for five whole days that that was an unnecessary stringent position to start off with."
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
