Yesterday, a group of Polish fishermen staged another protest in Brussels against the European Commission ban of their cod fishing in the eastern Baltic Sea. The previous Polish Government tried to negotiate with the Commission in order to lift the ban, but finally agreed at the Council meeting in October to obey and implement an action plan for improved control and compliance.
Despite this agreement, around 100 Polish fishermen were seen waving Polish flags and chanting “we want to work, not starve!” in Brussels yesterday. The protest was carried out outside of the ongoing Agricultural and Fisheries Council meeting. The fishermen also called for the EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg to resign.
“We Poles are idling in our ports to respect the cod fishing ban, but what are the Swedes and the Danes doing? Everything we are protecting they are catching,” said protest organiser Jerzy Wysoczanski of the Polish Fishermen’s Union, according to eubusiness.com.
The new Polish Agricultural Minister Marek Sawicki, which currently represents Poland in EU fisheries negotiations, believes that the manifestation points to problems with the cod catching limits (TACs). However, he also thinks that continued discussions between Poland and the Commission in order to solve the dispute need to be done in a calm manner.
“It’s senseless to heat up the atmosphere. The case requires calming down and I expect this of the fishermen,” Sawicki said, according to Polski Radio.
The Polish Fishermen’s Union protesting in Brussels yesterday represents the majority of the fishermen who officially decided to ignore the EU ban and not stay in port earlier this autumn. They were backed up by their former Chairman, now former Vice Fisheries Minister Grzegorz Halubek. It should be remembered, however, that most of the Polish cod fishermen have acknowledged the ban and staid in port.
According to the Polish representatives of fishermen and producer organisations in the Baltic Sea Regional Advisory Council, the Polish fishermen’s Union only represents about 5 per cent of the cod fishermen. The fishermen choosing to stay in port now have to pay the price. They have to share the burden of paying back the overfished cod in the coming three years, through imposed quota cuts. Further exacerbating the problem, fishermen have not received any compensation for staying in port from the Polish Government during the past year’s due to administrative failures.