French Commissioner resists EU fish quota shake-up

(BRUSSELS) - An ambitious European Commission plan to replenish EU fish stocks within four years was under threat Thursday after a top EU official voiced deep reservations, EU sources said.

EU internal markets commissioner Michel Barnier, a former French agriculture minister, is objecting to "central parts" of a proposal to create a system for fishermen to trade quotas at the national level, an EU source said.

The idea has already upset two of Europe's biggest fishing states, France and Spain.

Barnier's spokeswoman said the commissioner wants to ensure that such a scheme will be "well controlled to avoid speculation," but she denied that he was blocking the plan.

"He wants to prevent the risk of an industrialisation and concentration of fishing at the expense of the human and economic balance of European coasts," said spokeswoman Chantal Hughes.

EU fishing commissioner Maria Damanaki is proposing to create national fishing quota trading markets that would allow fishermen to sell their allowable catch limits.

Her goal is to hack back the size of Europe's fishing fleet in order to have stocks delivering a maximum sustainable yield by 2015.