Brussels, 27/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is ready to use all the means at its disposal to make Poland comply, and force its fishermen to comply, with the ban put on fishing for cod in the Baltic Sea. That, in substance, was European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg's message when he met representatives of the press on Thursday 27 September.
Dr Borg said that several options were open to the Commission, such as beginning a further infringement procedure against Poland for exceeding its quotas and not complying with the closure of the fishery (a procedure is already underway against Warsaw in relation to other failures to comply with control rules) or, if necessary, asking the Court of Justice to apply “interim conservation measures”. The Commission can also ask the Council for permission to impose tougher measures on Poland, for example, requiring EU port authorities to refuse to land catches by Polish vessels fishing for cod. In addition, Dr Borg pointed out that Poland's 2008 fishing quota would be reduced by the amount over-fished.
The Commission will continue to stress to the Polish government that it must ensure compliance with the ban on fishing for cod. On Wednesday 26 September, Dr Borg met the Polish fisheries minister, and stressed that Poland had to comply with the closure of the fishery and order its fishermen to abide by the rules. The Polish ministry for the sea said on the same day that, “for the moment”, it was not considering punishing the fishermen who did not comply with this ban.
The Polish attitude does not please Denmark, whose Fisheries Minister Eva Kjer Hansen will be in Brussels on 1 October to call on the Commission to “take the necessary steps to stop this illegal over-fishing”. Dr Borg pointed out to those countries which might be tempted to tell him what to do that over-fishing of cod did not happen only in the waters of the Baltic. The Commission “will take measures” against Denmark and Sweden whose fishermen had exceeded their cod quotas in the waters of Kattegat and Skagerrak, he said. (lc)