Europe's top fisheries official promised relief "within weeks" for the industry on Saturday as fishermen, farmers and truck drivers continued protests against the steep price of fuel. EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg told journalists at the Dutch seaport of Scheveningen, near The Hague, that he had instructed his staff to come up with ideas for short-term assistance.
"I will be receiving a document Wednesday," he said after a meeting with Dutch Agriculture Minister Gerda Verburg in the wake of days of protests and harbour blockades by angry fishermen in various countries. "I will then discuss it with a number of my colleagues in order to get their views on what is possible," he added, with a view to finalising proposals next week for approval by fellow EU commissioners in Brussels.
Giving an assurance that the European Commission - the European Union's executive branch - is moving with all due speed, Borg said: "It is a question of weeks, not months."
Once approved, proposals that the commission - which overseas a Europe-wide Common Fisheries Policy - could execute by itself will be put into action "immediately," he explained. Those requiring the approval of the European Parliament and the 27 EU member states, however, will probably need "a few months" to be implemented.
Spain, France, Italy and Portugal - big players in Europe's fishing industry - joined forces Friday to call for urgent EU measures to tackle the impact of record fuel prices on fisheries.
Marine diesel prices have leaped by around 30 percent since the start of 2008, triggering protests in European ports as well as warnings that fishing boat owners face bankruptcy without higher subsidies. The issue is set to dominate a meeting of EU fisheries ministers in Luxembourg on June 23.
Meanwhile more protests were staged Saturday by fishermen and other sectors affected after the single biggest one-day hike in oil prices to a new record of 138.54 dollars a barrel in New York. In Spain, Europe's largest fishing nation, a large proportion of the country's fleet remained on the indefinite strike called more than a week ago, the main employers' organisation Cepesca said.
It said most fishermen in the north-eastern Galicia region were striking, and many others elsewhere, predicting an almost total strike by the end of next week. Spanish truck drivers also carried on an indefinite strike launched Friday by a group calling itself "Platform for the Defence of the Transport Sector," a spokesman said.
He said that 87 percent of the 50,000 independent truckers it represented had joined the strike on Friday. Another association representing 70,000 of the approximately 380,000 trucks in Spain, Fenadismer, has called for an indefinite strike starting from Monday morning.
While the main truckers' union has refused to go along with the protest, the government said Saturday it had formed a team to monitor the strike in order "to guarantee the basic rights of citizens, free traffic movement and essential supplies."
Talks with the road transport industry are set for Monday. In neighbouring France, meanwhile, dozens of farmers staged several demonstrations across the country, mainly blocking roads briefly and handing out leaflets to motorists. At La Rochelle, on the Atlantic coast, they took over the toll booths on the bridge leading to the island of Ile de Re, allowing drivers to cross for free. The French agriculture ministry is to hold talks with farmers on Tuesday to seek "lasting solutions" to the problem of rising energy prices.