Brussels, 22/09/2009 (Agence Europe) - EU member states were divided on Monday 21 September on the question of bluefin tuna (EUROPE 9980). During the fisheries management committee, countries trading in this fish (France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Malta) voted against (or abstained) on the European Commission's project to include bluefin tuna in annex I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Bluefin tuna fishing countries, which made up a minority block, affirmed that such a measure was premature and called for them to wait for new scientific opinions on fish stocks. These opinions will be examined during the next International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICTA), planned for November. Several of these countries, Spain and France, say that if the state of the stock justifies including bluefin tuna in CITES Annex II, it means that there is a need for greater scrutiny but not a ban.
According to committee procedures, applied in this case, the Commission sends the proposal to the Council of Ministers of the EU, which has three months to formally endorse or reject it. If no qualified majority is obtained in favour or against the proposal, the Commission has to decide. Everything hinges on the ICTA meeting and if stocks have not improved, member states are expected to take drastic measures. European Commissioner for Fisheries Joe Borg, who has called for the international plan on protecting bluefin tuna to become more efficient, declared: “It is now up to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to assume its full responsibility to ensure the recovery of bluefin tuna”. Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the Environment, said that he “regretted” the block exercised by EU countries on including bluefin tuna in CITES.
The environmental protection organisation, Greenpeace, called on European governments to “listen to scientists”. A spokesperson for the organisation asserted that “the blinkered attitude of Mediterranean governments would drive bluefin tuna to extinction and leave fishermen with nothing to fish in just a few years”. (L.C./trans/rh)