Brussels, 17/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission did not, at its technical meeting in Brussels on Monday 16 June, reverse its decision to close the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean (see EUROPE 9682). France, which, like Spain and Italy, is challenging this early closure, has called for bluefin tuna to be put on the agenda for discussion at the next European Fisheries Ministers' meeting in Luxemburg on 23-24 June. The technical meeting, which was called for as a matter of urgency by French Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier, and which brought together experts from DG Maritime Affairs and the Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Department (France) “did not provide tangible proof that individual quotas allocated to French tuna seiners had been exceeded,” according to a French Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries press release published on Tuesday 17 June. The Commission, nonetheless, did not revoke its decision to close the fishery for tuna seiners with effect from 16 June, the French government regretted. The French government said that the only catch data provided had come from France, and regretted the lack of transparency in the Commission's decision.
Thus, Barnier has called for the decision to ban this fishery to be discussed at the next Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers. He wants to work with Commission services to examine each vessel's catch data so that those vessels which have not reached their quota are not penalised economically or socially. Barnier says he cannot understand this measure describing it as “unfair and discriminatory for some of our fishing enterprises” and “not yet justified by tangible data”.
In a press release of 13 June, the Spanish agriculture and fisheries minister also said the measure was “disproportionate”. He said that the six purse seine tuna vessels in the Mediterranean had used up only 28.8% of the available quota, and had caught only 432 tonnes of the 1.5 million tonnes authorised. This fishery is closed from 16 June for Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus and Malta, and Spain, and from 23 June for Spain. (L.C./transl.rt)