Fisheries partnership agreement with the Republic of Guinea

Since most European fish stocks have been over-exploited or are severely depleted, European fishers also fish outside the EU.

Consequently, the EU negotiates bilateral fisheries partnership agreements with the governments of third countries to fish in their waters.

The European Commission duly concluded negotiations with Guinea and put the result to vote in Parliament's Fisheries Committee on 30 September 2009, just two days after the Guinean government had ordered the police to open fire on demonstrators, killing 150 people.

In general, the Greens are critical of fisheries agreements with most third countries because they often deplete stocks on which local fishers depend for their living.

Even more so, however, in this particular case, it was inconceivable for the Greens to approve the conclusion of a fisheries agreement with Guinea after its government had shown such flagrant contempt for human rights.

Ratification of the fisheries agreement would have entailed payments being made to the Guinean government. We urged the EPP and the S&D to take the political situation in Guinea into account when voting on the fisheries agreement.

The Greens convinced the S&D and ALDE not to sign the fisheries agreement and demanded a roll-call vote in committee to make sure that they respected their commitment, which they did.

This was the first time that a fisheries agreement had been rejected even before being put to a vote in the plenary.

The vote was a total success for the Greens.