Both the Labour government and the Nationalist Party are takeing credit over a very significant victory obtained at the European Union institutions in favour of Maltese fishermen. The European Union will be sanctioning up to 21 Tunisian and Italian fishing vessels which have been encroaching into Maltese waters and even intimidating Maltese fishing boats. These boats are being sanctioned for their illegal fishing of bluefin tuna and dolphin-fish (lampuki) stocks.
Peter Agius has been a very big advocate for the Maltese fishing industry at the European Parliament and he has been lobbying the EU over this issue even before he was an MEP. The government only started addressing the situation of illegal fishing in Maltese waters earlier this year after encroachment by Tunisian and Italian boats increased significantly. As a result, the Maltese government requested for assistance from the EFCA which increased its inspections of vessels in Maltese waters. Last month, Peter Agius submitted a parliamentary question about the issue. The Opposition Leader, Alex Borg, even raised the issue himself with the EU Commissioner for Fisheries Kostas Kadis in his first official trip to Brussels last month.
You can also watch a video here that Peter Agius had uploaded on his Facebook page of Sicilian fisherman selling freshly-caught dolphinfish outside their season.
Last week at the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) annual session in Rome, the EU Commissioner for Fisheries Kostas Kadis said that as part of the the European Ocean Pact, the EU will be increasing compliance and strengthening the fight against illegal fishing. Illegal fishing in the Mediterranean Sea amounts to billions of Euros every year and also causes extensive ecological disaster by depleting stocks.
Now, the Labour Party is taking the credit for this decision, specifically the Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights, who has so far left her mark in society by legalising the keeping and trading of wild and exotic animals.
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