E.E.C. tries to stop high seas clash

Press, 7 January 1983, Page 1

E.E.C. tries to stop high seas clash

NZPA-AFP Copenhagen

The Danish trawler skipper. Kent Kirk, a member of the European Parliament. sailed inside the British 12-nautical mile exclusive fishing zone off Newcastle yesterday to challenge British fishery protection vessels, the correspondent of the Danish news agency. Ritzaus. reported from an accompanying press boat. The Danish skipper cast his nets to catch sprat, in spite of the nearby presence of a British frigate, said the correspondent. Mr Kirk was said to be fishing about 10 nautical miles off the English coast. The voyage continued as the European Economic ■ Community sought to avoid a clash on the high seas between them and British vessels. The fishermen lost the first legal battle at the heart of a dispute between the two nations when the European Commission last Wednesday gave interim backing to new fishing rules applied by Britain and other Community governments. A spokesman said the 14member executive wanted to avoid a clash on the high seas.

The Commission's decision gives support to Britain in its efforts to prevent Danish trawlers fishing in protected waters for the next three weeks.

Britain did not respond immediately to an appeal by Copenhagen to West Germany, now president of the Community, to bring the British and Danish Foreign Ministers together for an urgent meeting on the dispute. At the same time, British fisheries officials were ready to arrest Kent Kirk, the leader of a small armada of Danish boats expected to reach the north-eastern coast of England yesterday, if he tried to defy the new British rules.

The regulations were imposed after the Community failed to agree on a common policy covering the share-out of fish catches.

Denmark, which has the biggest fishing fleet in the Community, rejected the policy because it wanted a bigger share of the catch, mostly from British waters. It has said that Community laws give it the right to fish up to Britain's beaches in the absence of any common policy.

Officials said the Commission's unanimous decision had shifted the balance of legal argument firmly in Britain's favour for the moment.

Fisheries Ministers are due to meet in Brussels on January 25 to try to agree on longer-term arrangements.