If you have a problem to solve, bring on the left winger
Commissioner Damanaki is a former Greek revolutionary who fought Greece’s fascist dictorship. Today, she is still putting the greater good ahead at the privileges of the few. She has taken on the privileged elite of Europe’s powerful fishing industry and their allies in the European Governments, the European Commission and the European Parliament.
Dredging Up Political Allies to Keep the Money Flowing In
Key parts of the fishing industry and their proxy political voices from Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Belgium and Portugal continue their fight against reform. That this industry can not financially survive without European taxpayers money has not escaped them, and they’ll continue to hold our oceans to ransom until someone calls their bluff.
Time to End the Stockholm Syndrome
Commissioner Damanaki has called their bluff. They thought she was joking. The Commissioner suggests that DG MARE was a friend of fishermen and backed continued aid for the fleet. It had never seriously challenged the cosy relationship between the regulator and the regulated, between poacher and gamekeeper.
Coming from the left, Commissioner Damanki thought that her job and the department she heads is to first and foremost to protect the fish. It seems from this Sunday Times interview that plenty of people in her department disagreed with her.
You can read the interview in the Sunday Times interview ‘EU fishing chief to ban deep -sea plunderers‘