27 May 2008

BOULOGNE SUR MER - French fishermen voted on Monday to extend strikes and oil blockades in a dozen key ports by another two days, dismissing a package of aid to help cope with soaring fuel costs.

After tense talks in the key fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, a majority of the 50 fishermen present voted to uphold their strikes and plan to call for a Europe-wide protest movement in the coming days, participants said.

Meanwhile in Ancona, Italy, fishermen's groups from four European countries, including France, called for a strike from Wednesday in protest at the price they have to pay for diesel fuel.

The four main Mediterranean fishing federations - Italy, Spain, Greece and Malta - were also to meet later Monday in Paris to discuss possible joint action.

The vote here concerned fishing crews from Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk, Dieppe, Le Treport, and Cherbourg on the English Channel, and the Mediterranean ports of Marseille, Martigues, Sete, Agde and Port La Nouvelle.

Only one delegation, from Etaples near Calais, voted to return to work.

Fleets along the Atlantic coast agreed at the weekend to head back to sea, after the government promised aid to compensate for diesel costs. Fishermen in La Turballe in Brittany were the latest to return to work Monday.

But a determined fringe has kept up their action across the country, angry at fuel prices and also at European Union fishing quotas.

"Our demands are still the same, a standardised fuel price across Europe and a responsible management of quotas," said Thierry Lepretre, head of the fishing committee in Boulogne, where groups of fishermen strung cables across the port entrance to stop colleagues heading out to sea.

Earlier Monday, Brittany fishermen voted to remain on strike in Lorient, France's second fishing port, as well as Saint-Brieuc, while in Normandy they voted to keep up the strike in Granville and Ouistreham.

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