THE British government reacted angrily yesterday to the "quite crazy" European Court of Justice ruling that it must compensate Spanish fisherman for being banned from UK waters.
After denouncing the ruling, the British government immediately demanded that the issue be placed on the agenda at the inter governmental conference later this month.
The Fisheries Minister, Mr Tony Baldry, described the European Court's decision as "quite crazy "and predicted that the compensation bill could exceed £30 million, which will be paid by British taxpayers.
Mr Baldry said the British government would seek changes to the Treaty of Rome to prevent "quota hoppers" from fishing in British waters.
"This cannot continue. But because of the confusion over the rights of freedom of association under EU law as demonstrated in this case, the European Court has found in favour of the quota hoppers, so action has to be taken. We have decided to raise this issue at the IGC. The quota hoppers have got to go," he added.
The European Court ruled that the British government had discriminated against 100 Spanish fishermen, who had established "brass plate" companies in Britain to allow them to fish in British waters, by outlawing the practice in 1991.
The fishermen are now entitled to sue the British government for their lost profits.
Mr David Harris, chairman of the Tory fisheries committee, said the ruling was "diabolical" and that his constituents, who are mainly fishermen, would be "incandescent with rage".
"It is absolutely incredible that we now have to fork out money to people who virtually have stolen our quota. The government is going to have to pay up. The important thing now is to try to arrest this trend. All the time we are losing more and more quota to foreign fishing interests," he said.
Although the Labour Party also described the ruling as "quite bizarre", it blamed the British government for failing to secure the necessary legislation when the Commons Fisheries Policy was reviewed in 1992.
Dr Gavin Strang, the shadow agriculture minister, pointed out that when this policy was being reviewed the government knew its fishing legislation was contradicting EU law.
"This government is isolated in Europe and their history of failure in representing the interests of our fishing communities does not bode well for future negotiations," he added.
Several Tory backbenchers also privately expressed fears that the Euro sceptics within the party could use this ruling in "a very big way" to attack Britain's future within the EU.