RAROTONGA – The bid to stop the Government from entering into a fisheries deal with the European Union has reached a new level.
Cook Islands Opposition coalition has petitioned a Swedish politician and influential international conservation organisation to make representations to the EU Parliament.
Opposition finance and economy spokesman James Beer has written to Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation, Isabella Lovin, and the Swedish Society for the Conservation of Nature to take forward the Opposition’s concerns over the EU fishing deal.
From 2009 to 2014, Ms Lovin was a member of the EU Parliament, her area of expertise — fisheries.
An author and journalist by profession, Ms Lovin has won awards for her articles specialising in fisheries.
She is the spokesperson for the Swedish Green Party. In 2013, Ms Lovin wrote to the Kiribati Government expressing deep concerns over the purse seining agreement with the EU that the tiny island country had initialled.
She cautioned the Kiribati Government about a number of questionable aspects of the EU Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement.
It’s understood that Kiribati did not renew the protocols of the EU agreement last year.