Brussels, 04/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - The Environment Council of 2 March established the position that the European Commission, acting on behalf of the European Community, will have to defend at meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) between 2009 and 2011.
To improve protection of cetaceans, the European Commission has been given a mandate to negotiate the retention of the current moratorium on commercial whaling, the extension of this moratorium to other species still not covered while, at the same time, supporting proposals for the management of aboriginal subsistence whaling.
“The position taken by member states will help us negotiate, in particular with Japan, the future of whaling activities,” said Martin Bursik, President in office of the Environment Council.
The negotiating mandate, hitherto delivered on a yearly basis, has, for the first time, been granted for three years. The European Commission will have to report to member states every year. The next annual meeting of the IWC (the sixty first) will take place in Madeira in June 2009, with an inter-sessional meeting scheduled for Rome on 9-11 March. (A.N./transl.rt)