The European Union is preparing to back a temporary ban on bluefin tuna fishing which would see the suspension of catches around the world, a source linked to the dossier said Tuesday.
The source told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that environment and fishing experts at the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, had reached an agreement to back a ban in the interests of preserving stocks.
As one of the most popular sushi staples, bluefin tuna has become increasingly in demand in recent years and its stocks have plummetted over the last decade in both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
The commission is set to make public its stance on Wednesday or Thursday to back a proposal by Monaco to place bluefin tuna on the list of the world's most endangered species, which could ban international trade of the fish.
According to the proposal put to the UN agency against illegal wildlife trade CITES, stocks are so fragile that the species should be classified as being at threat of extinction.
"The idea is not to definitively ban fishing but to suspend it for two years, for example, to allow the species to build up again," the source in Brussels said.
But the commission's position will still have to win majority backing from the European Union's 27 member countries before becoming the bloc's official stance in March, when 175 CITES countries meet in Qatar.
In a statement, the environmental organisation WWF welcomed the decision and urged national EU governments to endorse it.
"Some EU member states have already joined the call to temporarily ban international trade in Atlantic bluefin, and WWF now urges other countries to follow the European Commission's lead and back the trade suspension," said WWF representative Tony Long.
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