EU says no to seal ban

The European Commission has said no to the idea of imposing a European Union ban on the importation of seal products.

The European Commission functions as the European Parliament’s executive branch – so the decision means the EU is now unlikely to act on a vote conducted last year among European parliamentarians that called for such a ban.

Instead, the European Commission says it will continue to acertain that “humane” hunting methods are used to harvest seals in Canada.

And they point out that seal populations in Arctic and Atlantic Canada have “grown significantly” over the last 30 years, so there is no valid conservation reason for banning the importation of seal products into Europe.

Since 1983, the EU has banned the importation of products from harp seals that are less than 12 days old, and from hooded seals that are less than one year old, to allay the fears of people who don’t like the idea of killing baby seals.

This 1983 measure, the European Commission says, is a sufficient response to concerns raised last summer by parliamentarians.

Last spring, Caroline Lucas, a Green Party MEP who represents south-east England in the European Parliament, sponsored a “written declaration” calling for an EU-wide ban on seal skin imports.

More than 50 per cent of MEPs voted for it – but as many observers expected, the European Union found no legal basis for implementing it.