Mr. Dominic Rihan:

What the Commission can do is to seriously look at the actions of those third countries where those operations are working. The frustration we have is that for years we go to the coastal state meetings in London - there is one this week on mackerel - with high hopes that something will happen but nothing happens. The Commission representatives throw insults across the table and send strongly worded letters and do very little of substance - in actual action. The other countries go away and just carry on doing what they have done. We had hoped that the stark scientific advice on mackerel would have provoked a bit more of a reaction and that rather than trying to attack the science, they would actually try to sort out the problem and come up with a sharing agreement that works and protects the stock into the future. We go to London again this week with high hopes that this will happen but there is no guarantee. In reality, the only tool the Commission has is on the trade side. This is where the Commission and the EU have power. It is where it needs to go because everything else, including diplomacy, has not worked so far. That is clear in the scientific advice.