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Call for Finnie to lead UK at Fisheries Summit
By Andrew Black, Scottish Press Association
Scotsman.com
8th December 2003
The SNP today called for Scottish fisheries minister Ross Finnie to be empowered to lead the UK in this month’s European Union fishing talks.
The Nationalists’ fishing spokesman Richard Lochhead said today that Mr Finnie would make a better job of securing a future for fishing communities in the Brussels negotiations than the UK’s current “inexperienced” Fisheries Minister, Ben Bradshaw.
The call was part of the SNP’s top 10 priorities for Scotland’s fishing industry, which it published today ahead of the Scottish Parliament’s pre-EU Fisheries Council debate, on Wednesday.
The party also called for the decoupling of cod management from other species, an increase in quotas and days at sea and support for the campaign to scrap the Common Fisheries Policy.
Speaking at a press conference in Aberdeen, Mr Lochhead said: “Scottish fishing communities have spent the last 12 months recovering from what was the appalling negotiations last December in Brussels where Scotland was left exposed and came away with the worst deal out of all the industries represented round the negotiation table.
“If we are to secure the best deal in the circumstances, Ross Finnie should demand to lead the UK delegation in Brussels.”
Mr Lochhead pointed out that, in the past, Scottish Executive ministers led UK delegations in education and health, but never fisheries.
He added: “This year we have to look at a situation where unless Ross Finnie does demand to lead the UK delegation we will have Ben Bradshaw leading on behalf of Scotland.
“Ross Finnie has been to previous fisheries councils and is also familiar with the Scottish fishing industry.
“Rather than have the inexperienced Minister in the form of Ben Bradshaw leading for Scotland, we believe that Ross Finnie, for all his faults, would still make a better fist of it.
“If he was given authority to negotiate on behalf of the UK, that would make a much better deal for Scotland.”
The EU fisheries council in Brussels will be faced with making crunch decisions for the industry, following calls by scientists for a total ban on catching cod.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has recommended a total ban on catching North Sea cod to allow for the recovery of stocks.
ICES scientists have estimated that stocks are down to 52,000 tonnes and want a total ban until the number has climbed up to 70,000 tonnes, followed by a “rebuilding” plan to reach a recommended minimum of 150,000 tonnes.
However scientists also said that haddock stocks were at a 30-year high and the SNP said that a decoupling of cod management from other species would help keep the industry afloat.
MEP Ian Hudghton, the SNP fisheries spokesman in the European Parliament, said that Scotland had to avoid being gutted again by EU Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler in the talks.
He said: “Given the North Sea is teeming with fish following an increase in stocks, especially the record-breaking haddock stock, and that scores of our white fish vessels have been scrapped by the Government, the only way must be up for quota and the number of days at sea allocated to Scotland this December.”
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