European Commission Meeting Sep 15
Resumen of my meeting at the European Commission in Brussels in September 15th, 2010.
My meeting was with the Member of the Cabinet in charge of the seal hunt at The European Commission, who met with me on behalf of the Commissioner of the Environment Mr. Janez Potocnik.
This person told me that the EC was quite surprised for the last minute European Court of Justice decision before the ban was implemented on August 20th. This happened as a result of the big pressure caused by Canada claims that this will affect the Inuits livehood.
The EC doesn't know when the Court will reach a decision and they believe these exceptions will be only for the aboriginals (Apparently not for the 15 other groups that are against, which include: native hunters, fur companies from Canada, Greenland and Norway who are contesting the European Regulation).
If that would be the case, then the ban would be inefficient and the EU doesn't want that. Anyhow, the E.Court of Justice in Luxemburg was supposed to make a decision after September 7th, but they have been dealing with this issue in a very secretive way, not sharing any information with other EU organisms. Whatever they decide, it may take 1.5 years to be implemented. But for now, the ban has been implemented.
The European Parliament and the European Council drafted the Proposal in quite a strict way, and aboriginal exceptions were already included (As most of you know by now, this unnecesary, unethical, cruel and wasteful commercial seal hunt has nothing to do with the aboriginal seal hunt, where every inch of the seal is used).
The Member of the Cabinet that I met, is going to try to find out about the Penalties and Enforcement of this new law within the Member Countries. There is not a harmonized Penalty or Enforcement of the Law within the EU to sanction the individuals or companies that violate this Law, so the Penalties can differ enormously.
I had almost an hour meeting with this Member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Potocnik, to discuss several issues and concerns about this ban on imports of seal products at the EU and several agreements that could create loopholes to the ban. Of course, once I started to speak about stadistics and all the differences between the comercial and the aboriginal hunt, she was surprised to hear what I say Vs what Canada says.
Now we only have to wait for the E. Court decision.
Ericka Ceballos
CATCA
www.catcahelpanimals.org
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