The Minister for the Marine, Mr Ahern, has warned that he faces an uphill struggle in negotiations among fisheries ministers over reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The ministers meet in Brussels today to discuss the latest compromise proposal from the Danish Presidency, but Mr Ahern said there was little chance of agreement before next month.
He was speaking after meetings in Brussels with the Fisheries Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, and ministers from other member-states. Describing his meeting with Mr Fischler and the Danish fisheries minister, Ms Mariann Fischer Boel, as "frank", Mr Ahern said it was difficult to see where a compromise might be found.
Mr Fischler told Mr Ahern that the Commission's Legal Service had established that the Irish Box represented a discriminatory restriction on fishermen from other member-states. But Mr Ahern said the Government's legal advice contradicted this view. He added that providing open access would inhibit moves to conserve stocks.
Earlier yesterday Mr Fischler called for drastic cuts in catches and in the time fishermen spend at sea in an attempt to cope with the collapse in cod stocks.
An action plan announced yesterday demands cuts of 80 per cent in cod and haddock catches and 75 per cent for whiting in EU fishing areas, until scientists indicated that a minimum level of mature fish had been reached.
Scientists say an outright ban is the only way to avoid the collapse of whitefish stocks, but the Commission says it has a social duty to protect communities dependent on fishing for their livelihood.
"This would combine protection for the stocks with the possibility for the fleets to continue fishing, even if at much reduced levels. Extraordinary situations call for courageous decisions," Mr Fischler said.
The slow progress at yesterday's opening session of a crucial EU fisheries council has prompted industry leaders to question the motives of the European Commission.
"It looks as if every key decision on the future of fishing for the next two decades will be left to the December council, when member-states have their backs to the wall," Mr Jason Whooley of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation (IS&WFO) said in Brussels yesterday.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the European Parliament's fisheries committee, Mr Struan Stevenson, has claimed that the drastic proposals on whitefish cuts in the North and Irish Seas and west of Scotland are not about conservation, but are part of a "federalist" agenda to hand over the bulk of European fishing to Spain.
