Irish fishing industry leaders were meeting a minister to review developments over European Union plans to give foreign trawlers greater access to Ireland's fishing grounds. The discussions with Irish marine minister Dermot Ahern were going ahead against a background of protests by the Irish fishermen. They took action to blockade a number of ports in the south west of Ireland during the Christmas and New Year holiday period. At the heart of the trawlermen's anger is the "Irish Box" fishing area, which, under the terms of the EU Fisheries Commission plan, is now open to foreign vessels. Frank Doyle, spokesman for Irish Fishermen's Organisation, said there was a strong case to be made against the proposals, which formally came into effect at the start of the year. He maintained yesterday that the government's legal advisers believed that the previous position on the Irish Box, which restricted foreign entry to within 50kms of Ireland's coastline, was still in place. Mr Doyle said: "Today will be a matter of trying to determine where we are on this issue. We are seeking clarity and we are seeking to protect the Irish Box." Also down for discussion at yesterday's meeting were other EU proposals focusing on a limitation of days spent at sea by fishermen, a factor seen as having a potentially major impact on Irish trawlers.

(Irish News Round-Up http://irlnet.com/rmlist 1-3 January, 2003)

French fishermen will be exempted from the drastic quota cuts that northern fishermen now face. French President, Jacques Chirac, has secured an exemption for key French fishing grounds from crushing new restrictions on cod fishing that should come into effect on 1 February, reports the Scotsman. The exclusion of the eastern Channel area, means that France's largest fishing port, Boulogne-sur-Mer, will not be subject to the reduction of days at sea and 45% quota cuts that were thrashed out during marathon fisheries negotiations in Brussels directly before Christmas.

(EUobserver.com 9/1/03)

The environmental crisis in the North Sea is man-made. It is a classic stratagem of the European Commission to exploit such a crisis in the cause of closer European integration - this is known as a beneficial crisis. When the Commission decides that fish stocks have recovered, the only certainty is that the quotas will, under the equal access provisions, go not to British fishermen, but to Spaniards and Poles. The 30,000 British workers whose jobs will disappear are expendable in the cause of further European integration.

(Letter Daily Telegraph 28/12/02)

Our European partners will no doubt congratulate Franz Fischler, Fisheries Commissioner, on sinking the British fishing fleet, something another Austrian, Adolf Hitler, failed to accomplish. Whilst Scottish fishermen are being culled, under the disguise of conservation, the Commission shows bias towards other member states: the French are allowed to fish for 25 days per month with no limitation on days when fishing cod or other species west of the Hebrides; hake conservation is now off the agenda to pacify the Spaniards; the ban on days at sea in the Irish box is cancelled to appease the Irish; the threatened 40 per cent reduction for plaice has been reduced to 10 per cent to satisfy the Dutch; and the Danes can continue industrial fishing - for fish meal - despite taking thousands of tons of cod, haddock and whiting as a by-catch (8lb of wild fish are required to produce 1lb.of farmed salmon). Fischler's solution to rectify 30 years of EU fishing mismanagement is to destroy the Scottish fishing fleet, despite their conservation efforts. To add insult to injury all EU countries, except the UK, will receive funds, much of it from the British taxpayer, to build and modernise their fishing fleets. To save the British fishing industry from total disaster our Labour government must amend the European Communities Act [1972] in order that we regain control of our fishing grounds. If they fail in this respect then they are putting the interests of the Europeans before that of our dole-bound fishermen.

(27/12/02 Stornoway Gazette)

The Spanish have about half the EU fishing fleet, much is based in Galicia recently damaged by the oil spill. Spain is fighting the EU conservation proposals for the North Sea cod fishery, which is on the verge of collapse after years of mismanagement by the EU.

(BBC Farming Programme 19/12/02)

MEPs will approve a deal whereby Brussels buys up fishing rights in Senegal and Angola for the benefit, chiefly, of Spanish trawlermen. These are just the latest in a series of accords intended to allow Southern European skippers, who have exhausted their own stocks, to plunder the warm waters off Africa. They follow similar treaties with Morocco, Mauritius and Namibia. It is bad enough that our taxes should be going, in effect, to subsidise the Spanish fishing industry. But the real victims are the local African fishermen, who stand to lose their livelihoods entirely. Some, indeed, have lost their lives: there have been several incidents where small local vessels have been run down by European industrial trawlers. It is worth standing back and asking why Europe's fishing fleets are constantly slavering for new waters. Why can they not subsist in their own seas, as their fathers did? There is a simple three-word answer to that question: Common Fisheries Policy. Since 1973, the EU's North Sea waters - the source of most of its fish - have been declared a "common resource". As any conservative will tell you, that which no one owns, no one will care for. No skipper is going to tie up his boat for the sake of conservation if he knows that foreign vessels are simultaneously at loose in the same waters. So, for thirty years, we have been hoovering up what ought to have been a renewable resource. Britain has been the big loser. Sixty-five per cent of the fish covered by the CFP fall within our territorial waters; yet, under the EU's quota system, we are allocated a share of just 28 per cent by volume, or 18 per cent by value.

(December 04, 2002 Daniel Hannan MEP's Conservative Euro-Briefing)

AN ARTICLE in the Sunday Times mentioned an idea for a Euro Navy to patrol the EU's fishing grounds (formerly British grounds) to "keep out foreign vessels" The ships would come from Britain, Ireland,Spain and Portugal and in the UK's case would consist of four patrol boats and three minehunters which would swop the White Ensign for the Gold Stars on Blue of the EU. European politicians see this fishery protection fleet as a foot in the door for a EU Navy.