News / Sanctions plea
THE FAROE Islands have called on the European Union hold back from implementing trade sanctions and return to the negotiating table to agree a “constructive and reasoned” management regime for Atlanto-Scandian herring.
Fisheries minister Jacob Vestergaard said the EU’s plan to enforce potentially devastating economic measures was based entirely on inaccurate allegations.
Last month fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki trade sanctions against Faroe would be introduced after talks about pelagic quotas in the north east Atlantic collapsed.
Faroe and Iceland have at loggerheads with Norway and the EU over the issue for the past three years.
Both island states claim that pelagic species have changed their migrating patterns and spend more time in their national waters.
In a letter to the EU commissioner, Vestergaard said: “The Faroe Islands remain fully committed to the long term management of the herring stock and the scientific advice on the recommended total catch level for 2013.
“I am extremely concerned that the EU’s insistence on finger-pointing and threats of economic coercion are simply a means of distracting attention from the real crux of the problem, which is the need to revise the allocation of shares of the herring stock.”
He added that the EU’s proposed one-sided punitive action against Faroe would circumvent a range of recognised international tools, in particular under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, that are available to coastal states to settle disputes.
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