As a member of UKIP saying “Well done” to the government of Croatia takes some doing. However, credit where it’s due. Despite strong European Union opposition the Croatians are setting up a protected fishing zone covering 22,800 sq miles of the Adriatic. Croatia says fish stocks are being depleted by Italy's annual catch of 200,000 tonnes, worth £219m. Italy's catch is about ten times the size of Croatia’s own.
Croatia isn’t a member of the European Union, yet, but its membership is expected to be negotiated during 2008. The refusal to let EU fishing fleets into Croatian waters is causing Brussels Bureaucrats some problems. Iceland left the EU over fishing and the current death throes of the UK Fishing Industry is part of the price of Britain’s 30 year European Union membership.
Croatia can probably expect hefty concessions to resolve their concerns and of course when they join EU grant money, most of it from British Taxpayers, will flood into the country. Ted Heath gave up the UK fishing industry when we joined the EU but without the compensation of EU money. The UK actually paid huge sums of cash to the European Union for the privilege of joining and we continue to pay to this very day.
It’s disgraceful that no British Prime Minister, either Conservative or Labour, from Ted Heath right through to Gordon Brown has done a quarter as much to protect British interests as the Croatian government is now doing to protecting its own Adriatic Fishermen.
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