| Date posted 2009-05-22 |
The EU must take a stand to stop whaling |
| The Humpbacks need our help again. Please e-mail EU members urging them to reject a proposal for Greenland to increase its whale hunts to include humpback whales. |
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Step 1: Please fill in your details (on the right) Step 2: Read the text and add your personalized message (please keep your language firm but polite) Step 3: Send! (and forward this link to friends, family, colleagues or anyone who you think will be concerned). |
| To: Elena Espinosa Mangana - Minister For Environment, Spain Paula Lehtomäki - Minister For Environment, Finland Andreas Carlgren - Minister For Environment, Sweden Martin Bursík . - Minister Of The Environment, Czech Republic The Hon. Tineke Huizinga, Minister Of Agriculture, Nature And Food Quality, Nederlands Commissioner Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner For The Environment Mr Jean-Louis Borloo - Ministre De L'écologie, France |
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Dear Minister,
[I should note that I am copying in this message to the European Commission] You must take action to prevent a procedural stalemate within the European Union precipitating the resumption of commercial whaling. We, the citizens of the European Union are aware of a difficult debate within the EU over the protection of whales. We understand that the Member Countries of the EU, who also belong to the International Whaling Commission, were unable to find consensus on a proposal by Denmark to allow Greenland to kill ten humpback whales a year at the recent IWC meeting in Florida. We have learned that the Member countries have been advised that if they could not reach consensus on the proposal, they were all to have abstained on the proposal before the IWC meeting. Considering that EU countries make up almost 30 percent of the membership of the IWC, and that so many other nations follow the lead of the EU, such a mass abstention would undoubtedly have lead to the controversial and divisive proposal being adopted. It would also have set a terrible precedent for the next annual meeting of the IWC in June 2010 which is expected to vote on a proposal to suspend the IWC’s longstanding moratorium on commercial whaling and allow commercial whaling to resume. We are outraged that the European Union’s strong mandate to protect whales, and its leadership role in the IWC, could be eviscerated in the interests of Denmark and a minority of EU members that support the Greenland proposal. We fear that democracy will be hijacked again with even worse consequences when the EU has to reach a common position on the proposal to legitimize commercial whaling. All that Denmark, the only EU country that actively supports commercial whaling, will have to do to ensure the proposal is adopted by the IWC, is block consensus within the EU. This is unacceptable. We demand that member states be able to represent the strong views of their citizens on whaling and to cast their vote freely. Minister, as the International Whaling Commission prepares to meet In Morocco in June we are aware that you may hold the key to votes of all the European Union members. We agree with WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, that Denmark’s proposal does not meet the conditions set by the European Union for approving a proposal for an Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling quota (see http://www.wdcs.org/story_details.php?select=536) and expect you to oppose this request by voting ‘NO’ for any schedule amendment that allocates humpback whales to Greenland. We also support WDCS in fighting for the rights of the sovereign nations of Europe to represent the vast majority of EU citizens in opposing commercial whaling in all its forms. We share WDCS’s concerns that the use of voting procedures to block EU countries from exercising their rights in an environmental agreement to which the EU is not even a signatory will set an extremely dangerous precedent within the IWC and within any other environmental agreements in which the EU engages. This is a dangerous and inappropriate position for the EU members to be forced into. |
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