Malta's tuna industry is making a last-ditch attempt to persuade the EU not to stop the international trade of bluefin tuna, letting it be known that, should that not happen, it would insist on compensation.
A high-profile delegation from the Maltese Federation of Aquaculture Producers, including tuna farm operators, this week had talks with members of the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament (EP) including its chairman, Spanish MEP Carmen Fraga Estevez.
The meetings, organised by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil, were "cordial" and "positive", according to a representative of the Maltese fishermen. However, he admitted that it might be "a little bit too late".
There is a Plan B: to seek compensation and, there, the fishermen feel they have a strong position.
"The EU already recognises the need to compensate those fishermen who will lose their business through this ban. We are now insisting that the operators of tuna farms should also be compensated," the spokesman said.
The meetings come in the wake of last week's announcement by the European Commission that it would back an initiative by Monaco to ban international trade of the fish by including bluefin tuna on a list of endangered species protected under a UN convention.
The move would effectively stop the export of tuna, which means the fish could still be caught for local consumption. But this would wipe out the €100 million a year industry, which has been thriving on lucrative deals to supply Japan's voracious appetite for sushi and sashimi.
The final decision on the EU position is expected to be taken by environment ministers within a few days, in time for a UN conference scheduled to meet later this month in Doha, Qatar.
Malta is against the Commission's proposal and would rather see the industry regulated further by the International Committee for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT). However, its position is only supported by Spain, Greece and Cyprus while the other member states are in favour of the ban. This means that Malta will most probably be outvoted in the EU's Environment Council.
Despite the clear minority Malta finds itself in, a government spokesman said yesterday the country would not change its position and would keep insisting that a total ban was not in the industry's interests.
"What will probably happen through a ban is that tuna farms will move to waters outside the EU," the spokesman said. "This is obviously not in the EU's interests."
Yet, despite this bleak scenario, operators in the Maltese tuna industry are still hopeful that the battle is not lost. "Even if the EU adopts its position in favour of a total ban, we are not sure this will be supported at UN level. Japan will be opposing, along with a number of other states and we are still hopeful that Monaco's initiative, which now appears to have the EU's backing, will be defeated," the fishermen's spokesman said.