Fishing strikes set to spread across Europe
Pastor Dale Morgan
Fishing strikes set to spread across Europe*
AFP - Tuesday, May 27
PARIS (AFP) - - Protests by fishing fleets against soaring fuel costs
threatened to spread across Europe, as French fishermen voted Monday to
extend their port blockade and Spanish fleets joined the stoppage with
several other countries likely to follow.
Italian and Greek fishermen may also join the strike later this week.
In France the cost of a litre of diesel fuel for fishing boats has shot
up from 45 euro cents (70 US cents) a litre to 70 in just six months.
After tense talks in France's biggest fishing port, Boulogne Sur Mer,
fishermen voted to reject an aid package from Paris and extend their
strike and oil blockade in a dozen key ports by another 48 hours.
Meanwhile fishermen in northeast Spain also went on strike Monday over
the same grievance, in a stoppage which is expected to spread to the
country's other ports Tuesday.
The striking French fishing fleet planned to call for a Europe-wide
protest, participants at the Boulogne meeting said.
In Ancona, Italy, a "Mediterranean vigilance committee" grouping
fishermen from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain called for an
indefinite strike from Wednesday, but it was not clear how
representative they were.
The four main Mediterranean fishing federations -- Italy, Spain, Greece
and Malta -- met later Monday in Paris to discuss possible joint action.
The chairman of the Mediterranean fishing association Medisamak, Mourad
Kahoul, told AFP on the sidelines of the Paris meeting that European
fishermen planned a demonstration this week in Brussels, without giving
further details.
The French strike affects fleets in the English Channel and the
Mediterranean, although one delegation, from Etaples near Calais, voted
to return to work.
Fleets along the Atlantic coast agreed at the weekend to head back to
sea, after the government promised aid to compensate for diesel costs.
"Our demands are still the same, a standardised fuel price across Europe
and a responsible management of (EU) quotas," said Thierry Lepretre,
head of the fishing committee in Boulogne, where groups of fishermen
strung cables across the port entrance to stop colleagues heading out to
sea.
French fishermen are also blockading oil depots and refineries on the
country's Atlantic, Mediterranean and Channel coasts.
The fishermen escalated their protests last week, disrupting
cross-Channel traffic, blocking fuel depots and ransacking fish stands
at supermarkets as industry leaders negotiated with President Nicolas
Sarkozy's government.
Fishermen in northeastern Spain launched a similar protest on Monday to
demands for government aid, saying they too are hard hit by high fuel
prices.
Fishermen in Belgium and Portugal are also planning protests later this
week to press demands for government aid.
An Italian association, the Federation of Fishing Cooperatives, said its
leadership would meet Wednesday to discuss strike action.
A big national demonstration is planned in Madrid on Friday.
In Spain union and government representatives met in Madrid on Monday
but the talks ended without concrete agreement. Both sides agreed to
future meetings aimed at countering the rising cost of fuel.
The government "understands the difficulties faced by the fishing
sector," said fisheries ministry spokesman Juan Carols Martin after the
meeting, but stressed that it was not the only industry suffering from
high commodity prices.
The Spanish government has already promised a 60 percent increase in
subsidies to fishing fleets to relieve their fuel expenses.
In France, where fishermen have already been out on strike for several
days, Paris has offered an emergency package of 100 million euros (173
million dollars).