1 The European Union's fisheries chief said Tuesday she will ask EU nations to consider fighting Canada over stocks of Greenland halibut.
2 'The (EU executive) Commission has no intention of passively accepting the NAFO decision,' said Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino, speaking to members of the European Parliament.
3 She referred to a Feb. 1 meeting in Brussels, Belgium of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization which handed out catch limits of Greenland halibut off Canada's coast.
4 During the meeting, Canada called a vote to apportion the dwindling halibut stocks which left EU boats a drastically reduced share -- 12.6 percent -- of the catch.
5 EU delegates boycotted the vote, and Bonino said Tuesday EU fishermen would ignore the allotment and fish the region as before.
6 'The EU fishermen will not interrupt their fishing,' she told the Parliament.
7 Dividing the catch among NAFO members 'sets a dangerous precedent for the future,' she added. She also said the halibut stock is not in danger.
8 Bonino said she would ask the EU's executive branch and fisheries ministers of the 15 EU nations to decide quickly whether to start an objection procedure in NAFO against Canada and the vote results.
9 NAFO members agreed last September to a 1995 catch limit of 27,000 tons of Greenland halibut in NAFO-managed international waters outside Canada's 200-mile zone.
10 Bonino disputed Canadian claims that as the nation bordering the fishing zone, it should have the lions' share of the halibut. That opinion, she said, 'conforms neither to international law or practice.'
11 With the Feb. 1 vote, Canada was allotted 16,300 tons, compared to 3,400 tons for the European Union. The vote set a 3,200-ton limit for Russia; 2,600 tons for Japan and 1,500 tons for other members combined.

" The ( EU executive ) Commission has no intention of passively accepting the NAFO decision , " said Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino , speaking to members of the European Parliament .
no intention of passively accepting
Why is the Commission not intending to passively accept the NAFO decisions?