Friday, 10th December 2010
‘Plundering Vikings’ wreck mackerel deal
Scots Tory MEP Struan Stevenson has slammed Iceland and the Faroe Islands for walking out on a deal to set sensible mackerel quotas for 2011.
Mr Stevenson, who is senior vice president of the European Parliament’s fisheries committee, said:
“Iceland and the Faroes’ arrogance in refusing to reach agreement on mackerel proves that my labelling them as ‘Viking raiders’ was spot on. While their ancestors plundered on land, they are now plundering the seas.
“They have trampled over the good fisheries management of Scottish fishermen with their recklessly enormous quotas.
“To put it in perspective, these two tiny nations – with just 370,000 people between them – will be taking a bigger North Atlantic mackerel quota in 2011 than the entire EU, with 500 million citizens.
“This is a migratory species that passes through the territorial waters of several states. You cannot manage it properly by simply taking the biggest quota you can think of and letting everyone else go hang. But that seems to be Iceland and the Faroes’ approach.
“The European Commission and EU member states must now get tough. It’s clear they don’t want to negotiate a sensible solution so I again repeat my call for a blockade of these countries at EU ports.”
