Dr Cunningham and Ms Bonino hope for closer relations

Cunningham Starts Work On Quota-Hopping

Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham and EU Commissioner Emma Bonino have begun talks to end the British fishing industry's problem of quota-hopping.

Dr Cunningham also said he was optimistic about the progress being made towards lifting the beef ban following his 90-minute "get to know you" meeting with Mrs Bonino, the EU Commissioner responsible for Fisheries.

To ensure that Britain will benefit economically from its fish stocks the Government is seeking to add a legally binding protocol to that effect to the Treaty of Amsterdam, due to be signed in June.

At present a quarter of the British fleet is now made up of 150 Spanish and Dutch "quota-hoppers". These boats are foreign-owned and foreign-crewed and land their catches abroad.

Dr Cunningham is hoping that every boat with a British licence will be obliged to land a fixed proportion of its catch in the UK.

He is also exploring ideas which would require a proportion of the crew to be British or English speaking.

A spokesman for Mrs Bonino said they had made plain there were a range of measures that could be taken to tackle the problem within EU law.

They included compulsory landings in the UK, a requirement that a proportion of the crew should speak fluent English, and a requirement that the captain should be British for safety reasons.

Beef Ban

The Agriculture Minister said he was "cautiously optimistic" about lifting the beef ban, after speaking to key figures over the last week - Mrs Bonino, Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler and the Dutch president of the council of Agriculture Ministers.

"There's a willingness to be positive and constructive and helpful in seeking a lifting of the ban," he said.

Dr Cunningham called for an EU-wide approach to the risks posed by BSE and said it was unacceptable if Britain was obliged to meet standards which were ignored elsewhere.

"We can't accept a situation where more strengthened requirements are placed on British beef and beef products than are applicable throughout the rest of the Union," he said.

If there are to be European Union scientific and veterinary requirements they should apply uniformly and consistently across the European Union."