EU lawmakers campaign for total seal product ban

A group of European Parliament members launched a campaign last month aimed at imposing a complete EU ban on the importation of seal products.

Five elected parliamentarians — called “MEPs” — launched their bid May 15, in the form of a “written declaration” that calls for a total import ban on all seal products, from pups or adults.

Under the rules of the European Parliament, a “written declaration” is deposited outside the body’s chambers for three months, where other MEPs are invited to sign it

If at least 50 per cent of the body’s 732 MEPs sign the declaration before a Sept. 15 deadline, the document would be forwarded to the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, and to the European president.

If less than 50 per cent of members sign it, the proposal will lapse.

Caroline Lucas, a Green party MEP who represents south-east England at the European Parliament, is one of the proposal’s most vocal sponsors, saying the ban is aimed at Canada’s east coast seal hunt.

“It is high time the EU adopted a complete ban on the import of all seal products to try and cut off the demand for fur that fuels this barbaric annual ritual, in line with the wishes of EU citizens and the EU’s own recently-adopted ‘animal protection action plan’,” Lucas said in a news release issued May 25.

The written declaration also says that the proposed import ban “should not have an impact on traditional Inuit seal hunting,” since the Inuit hunt only accounts for about 3 per cent of seals hunted in Canada.

The other MEPs sponsoring the total import ban represent constituencies in Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia and Germany.

In March of 1982, the EU imposed a ban on the import of skins taken from seal pups, using a regulation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trades aimed at “protecting public morals,” a measure that intended to allow states to control the flow of pornography across their borders.

But EU efforts to ban adult seal products have always foundered.

That’s because the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species, starting in April of 1983, has always ruled that Canadian seal populations are not endangered.

More recently, the International Conservation Union refused to include Canadian seals on their “red list” of endangered species.

But a renewed anti-seal-hunt campaign launched by activists from organizations such as the U.S. Human Society and the International Fund for Animal Welfare is putting pressure on national governments all over Europe.

Last February, Ian Pearson, the British trade minister, fended off questions from MPs pressing for a total British ban on the import of seal products into the U.K.

But on Feb. 14, during a debate in the British House of Commons, Pearson said that, although he doesn’t like the Canadian seal hunt, a total import ban that included adult seal products would likely be illegal under WTO trade rules.

He also suggested that the European Commission is bound by the rules too.

“The view of the European Commission is that there is currently no scientific basis to warrant an extension of the seals directive on conservation grounds,” Pearson said.

That means that even if Caroline Lucas and her allies succeed in getting more than half of their colleagues to sign their written declaration, the European Union may find that there is no legal basis for enforcing it.

Those constraints however, did not stop the Italian government from imposing a temporary ban on seal skin imports this past February. The Italian government then introduced legislation that would make the ban permanent.