Malta held its ground during acrimonious negotiations over next year’s tuna quotas and rallied with a Mediterranean coalition to block the European Commission’s plans to reduce catches in 2011.

The Commission was hoping to obtain a mandate from member states to negotiate a substantial cut in tuna quotas during a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) underway in Paris this week. However, following stiff resistance by Malta, together with France, Italy, Cyprus, Spain , Greece and Portugal, Brussels had to settle for a mandate which says the EU’s 2011 quotas should stay within the limit of last year, at 13,500 tons. The Commission can still negotiate cuts but in a small amount.

This is the second setback for Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki, who had first proposed to slash the European quota by more than half its present level to 6,000 tons in 2011. She was blocked by fellow commissioners who felt her proposal was excessive.

A meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday had to be suspended twice due to the divergent positions of the member states and the Commission. It was only following bilateral negotiations, led by the Belgian presidency, that an agreement was reached between member states late on Wednesday night.

Ms Damanaki did not hide her disappointment. “The Council has reached a decision on the bluefin tuna mandate for the upcoming ICCAT meeting in Paris, which is not based on the Commission’s proposal. Nevertheless, the Commission will respect its obligations as the negotiator on behalf of the European Union,” she said.

The negotiations at the ICCAT are now expected to be concluded in about 10 days’ time. Maltese fishing industry sources have commended the tough stance adopted by Malta in these talks. “We are very satisfied that Malta continued to support the important bluefin tuna industry,” the sources said.

Malta’s tuna industry had warned that further cuts could drive fishermen and the ranching industry out of business with series repercussions on the livelihood of fishermen and exports.

But environmental NGOs insisted the argument, which has been adopted by the government, was simply a smokescreen because most fishermen did not benefit from the tuna industry.

“The real issue is the unsustainable tuna ranches from which the fishermen gain nothing. Notwithstanding this, the government persists in supporting the lucrative tuna ranching industry that will benefit only a few industrialists to the detriment of others,” Din L-Art Ħelwa said this week.

Scientists made it abundantly clear, DLĦ said, that unless drastic reductions in catches were made, bluefin tuna would be an extinct species in a few years’ time, urging the government to put biodiversity before the interests of the industry.