Brussels, 18/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - European social partners of the fisheries sector are calling on the European Commission for “exceptional financial assistance” to provide fishermen and ship-owners affected by the badly chosen protocol agreed between the EU and Mauritania end July. They reject the agreement, considering it could “annihilate” a large part of the EU fisheries sector.
After frank opposition expressed by a delegation of European ship-owners (see EUROPE 10682), the social partners now denounce the protocol of agreement which took effect provisionally on 1 August, pending endorsement by the Council and the European Parliament. In a letter addressed to Commissioner Maria Damanaki (maritime affairs and fisheries), on Thursday 13 September, the social partners express astonishment and disappointment at the conditions of access granted to Mauritanian waters. They believe those conditions are highly unfavourable, in particular for small pelagic and demersal fisheries sectors, whereas the Commission was able to ensure a protocol that would be beneficial for tuna fishing.
The social partners find it is a whole sector of European fishing activity and its many jobs that are under threat. The protocol, they warn, will “needlessly annihilate an important part of the European Union's fishing sector which will no longer be in a position to sustain jobs and supply food with high nutritional value to those peoples of the world who are in dire need of it”. Under such circumstances, they say, “the European social partners request to the Commission to provide fishermen and ship-owners affected by the agreed protocol with exceptional financial assistance from the EU”. The social partners continue by saying that, in order to find a compromise that would guarantee “acceptable conditions” for fishing in Mauritanian waters, dialogue must be set in place with the fisheries commissioner. (JK/ransl.jl)