Tuesday, 21st December 2010
Stevenson welcomes Iceland blockade bid in ‘mackerel war’
Scots Tory MEP Struan Stevenson has welcomed moves by the European Commission to ban landings of Icelandic mackerel at EU ports.
The office of Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki today confirmed that she has started preparatory work to prohibit landings of mackerel from Iceland in EU ports. The move is in line with provisions in the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement which gives non-EU nations Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein access to EU markets.
Mrs Damanaki has made a formal request to convene a meeting of the EEA Joint Committee no later than January 14, 2011 to discuss how the blockade could be implemented.
Mr Stevenson said:
“This is the clearest possible indication that Commissioner Damanaki is prepared to act tough as well as talk tough.
“Right at the start of this dispute I said a blockade might be needed to get Iceland to see sense. I’m glad this firm action is now being pursued, as it’s clear Iceland are not prepared to drop their totally unreasonable demands.
“Iceland likes to present itself as the poor wee victim of the big bad EU, but let’s not forget the facts here. Iceland has unilaterally demanded a quota of 147,000 tonnes next year, even more than their exorbitant catch in 2010 which caused such outrage and sparked the ‘mackerel war’.
“This is a huge quota for a country of just 320,000 people, which only a few years ago hardly fished any mackerel at all.
“This is a shared, migratory stock that Scottish fishermen have worked hard to fish sustainably. Iceland and the Faroe Islands have shown utter contempt for this good management with their smash-and-grab tactics.
“Although this action is targeted at Iceland, we may hope that the Faroe Islands will also realise that their actions have consequences.”
