Norway: we won’t free Spanish trawlers

By Jarle Hetland

Date: 24/11/05

Norway's foreign minister has angrily rejected demands from the European Commission that it should release two Spanish boats detained for alleged illegal fishing in the Arctic Ocean.

At a meeting of EU fisheries ministers on Tuesday (22 November), Elena Espinosa, the Spanish minister, asked Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg for support to have the two vessels - Monte Meixueiro and Garoya Segundo - released from custody. Spain regards the seizure as a breach of international law.

Mireille Thom, spokeswoman for Joe Borg, the fisheries commissioner, confirmed that the Commission supported Spain's view that the detention of the two boats was in contravention of the Paris Treaty of 1920, which covers fishing rights around the Spitsbergen Archipelago.

But speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, the Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that the Spaniards had acknowledged that the incident involved "serious environmental criminality", in particular illegal fishing of an estimated 300 tonnes of the protected species Arctic Blue Halibut.

"They [the fishing vessels] were caught red-handed and it is an environmental crime and I presume that the EU will consider this carefully before it decides to go any further with this," he said.

What is in dispute is the extent to which Norway can take measures against EU fishing boats. The Spanish fishermen were arrested by the Norwegian coastguard in Norwegian waters.

Støre said that to release the boats "would be the same as catching bank robbers red-handed, leading them out of the bank and asking them to return to their local police station".

"This is not international territory and it is our duty to manage this area properly," he said.

Norway and the EU are to resume fisheries talks on Monday (28 November) in Brussels. They are to discuss fishing quotas and control of threatened stocks.

Article reports that Norway's Foreign Minister angrily rejected demands from the European Commission that it should release two Spanish boats detained for alleged illegal fishing in the Arctic Ocean.