Anger boils over in fish-quotas battle

Britain and Spain clashed angrily over fishing rights yesterday setting the scene for a bitter confrontation with Europe on the emotive problem of quota-hopping.

European fisheries ministers meeting in Luxembourg unanimously rejected controversial proposals for cuts of up to 40 per cent in catches to save dwindling stocks of key species like cod, haddock and sardines. But the row over Spanish trawlers using Britain's national quota erupted into the open amid accusations of theft and piracy.

Fisheries minister Tony Baldry vowed to block agreement of "any compulsory or substantial" cuts to the British fleet until the EU takes action to stop foreign - notably Spanish and Dutch - fishermen buying UK vessels to take advantage of British catch quotas.

Mr Baldry's use of the term "quota-hopping" caused immediate offence to the Spanish minister, Loyola de Palacio, who said she interpreteted it to mean "looting or piracy". Signalling Spain's complete rejection of British demands for a change in the EU treaty to make quota-hopping illegal, Ms de Palacio accused the British government of wanting a single European market only where it suited Britain.

The European Court had ruled that Spanish boat owners could buy British trawlers and operate on the basis of Britain's fishing quotas because fishing was governed by the rules of the single market. There could be no going back on this verdict she said. The same principle applied when British commercial interests invested in the Spanish sugar industry which is also regulated by EU production quotas, she said.

A defiant Mr Baldry then deepened the row by suggesting to reporters that Ms de Palacio was right to regard the term "quota-hopping" as pejorative.

"I used the word 'quota-hopping'. I can't be responsible if that is interpreted as another word in Spanish or if she is somewhat sensitive. However if the Spanish think that quota-hopping involves an element of taking from others that which does not belong to them then I suspect that accords with the feelings of many in the UK fishing fleet."

Mr Baldry insisted that Britain would sign up to no new capacity cuts until talks to review the Maastricht treaty address the quota-hopping problem which he said was "quite crazy". Fishing was an exception from the normal rules of the single market because of the system of national quotas, he said.

Negotiations on reducing fish catches are scheduled to conclude in December, but the extent of opposition makes it unlikely that agreement will be reached within that time-scale.