Updated | Fishing co-op using electoral card in bid for government concessions

The national cooperative of fishermen will take to the streets yet again on Friday, in protest at a lack of agreement with the rural affairs ministry in conceding to their demands on fisheries reform.

Co-op president Ray Bugeja said that since their last protest in December, rural affairs minister George Pullicino had met the cooperative twice, but a proposal for a 10% reduction in contributory taxes for full-time fishermen was not welcomed by the cooperative.

"The ministry has proposed a series of reforms that do not reflect what we have proposed," Bugeja said. "We want what is ours by right as Maltese citizens."

The co-op's proposals include an insurance scheme, paying 50% of national insurance contributions, retirement schemes for tuna fishermen, and compensation for swordfish fishermen who will be affected by coastal fishing bans.

Bugeja said that Labour leader Joseph Muscat has promised that if elected to government, "he will keep any promise made to the cooperative... if Pullicino doesn't honour the commitments made with us back in 2004, we will go to our members and clearly express our opinion on who they should trust based on these past experiences."

When asked whether he would tell co-op members to vote Labour, Bugeja said nobody could tell anybody else who to vote for. "But everyone will be able to come to their own conclusion."

The cooperative claims Pullicino did not consult them on the fisheries management plan, without any scientific studies being yet conducted.

Bugeja has previously said government was returning the sum of €40,000 to the European Union, which are the salaries the ministry had to pay two managers to steward the fisheries management plan.

Fishermen claim that trawlers will not be able to work for more than 150 days, but the ministry is saying this will be a regional limitation imposed upon Tunisia, Libya, Italy and Cyprus.

The ministry has denied it will scrap trawler boats, and that this will only happen if there is EU compensation.

The fishing lobby claims it will lose 60% in income from limitations on swordfish fishing, due to current rules set by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas that ban the fishing of smaller size fish, which generally constitute 40% of the fish caught.

Malta is also the only country that has opposed the closure of an additional month in swordfish fishing, but this proposal passed through the support of other ICCAT members.

Since Malta's entry into the EU in 2004, the local fisheries had benefited from €11 million in EU funds and €4 million in national funds, apart from other cash though state aid schemes.