MEPs ban seal products in face of Canadian indigenous opposition

BRUSSELS - The European Parliament has overwhelmingly voted in favour of banning seal products, with Canada - the biggest sealing nation and also the country on the cusp of a free trade agreement with the European Union - the legislation's main target.

Deputies from all parties backed the regulation, with 550 votes in favour, 49 against and 41 abstentions.

Diana Wallis, the British Liberal MEP who shepherded the bill through the chamber, said that while hunting may still continue, no one may make a profit from sealing.

"What we have not done here is to regulate hunting. If people in any of our member states wish to hunt, they can still continue to hunt. What they cannot do is take commercial gain from the results of that hunt," she said.

The right of the house also strongly backed the law.

"The issue is the inhumane way in which seals are being killed and the inability of the professional hunters to deal with it," said Malcolm Harbour, a UK Conservative MEP. "I think the Canadian Government has to reflect on that as well.

The parliament did however make an exception for seal products from indigenous hunts, however, Inuit leaders from Canada warn that this will kill off their market nevertheless, and the sale of seal products will be permitted only where they result from hunts conducted in a traditional manner and which contribute to their subsistence.

Under the legislation, EU member states will lay down the rules on penalties. The bill still requires the okay of the 27 governments, but this is expected to occur without incident.

This year 50,000 seals have been killed in the Canadian seal hunt, compared to 220,000 last year.

The legislation comes at an otherwise awkward time for the European Commission, whose Arctic Strategy was dealt a setback when Canada last week convinced the Arctic Council to postpone a decision on offering the EU permanent observer status with the council. Gaining the status is a key element of the EU's plans for securing greater access to polar oil and gas resources.

However, Christiane Hohmann, the commission's foreign relations spokesperson, insisted to EUobserver that the move was not a rejection of the EU's application, but a deferral and that other countries, China, Italy and South Korea, had also applied as permanent observers. The Arctic Council is simply considering how to proceed with such applications, she indicated.

Nevertheless, Canada takes the position that the seal ban was the deal-breaker.

"Canada doesn't feel that the European Union, at this stage, has the required sensitivity to be able to acknowledge the Arctic Council, as well as its membership, and so therefore I'm opposed to it," Canadian foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon said after the decision.

But at the same time, Canada does not see the seal ban as a barrier to moving ahead with a planned EU-Canada free trade agreement, to be further discussed this week at a summit with the bloc.