The European Union is to tell Iceland this week that it will impose sanctions on Icelandic fishing vessels in the "mackerel war" that has threatened Iceland's bid to join the bloc, an EU source said on Monday, according to Reuters. At a meeting on Thursday of the European Economic Area -- the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein -- EU officials will reveal plans to refuse landings of mackerel from Icelandic boats at EU ports unless Iceland reduces its catch of the fish. The EU source said Iceland seemed unlikely to comply. Home to just 320,000 people but a major power in the Atlantic fisheries, Iceland began talks last year on joining the 27-nation EU in the hope of greater stability and financial security after the collapse of its banking system in 2008. But the island has also sought to benefit from a surge in mackerel stocks in its waters, an apparent consequence of warmer sea temperatures. This has brought it into a conflict over catch quotas with Britain, Ireland and Norway, whose governments have traditionally managed mackerel quotas among themselves. "The case will be presented at a special meeting with Iceland this week," the EU source said. However, no date for starting refusing Icelandic mackerel landings has been set. The dispute has worsened since fishing talks broke down last summer and Iceland unilaterally increased the amount of mackerel its boats could catch to 130,000 tonnes, compared to a traditional catch which the EU estimates at 2,000 tonnes. It has prompted comparisons with the "cod wars" of the 1950s and 1970s, when Iceland and Britain deployed naval forces. Iceland says more than 1 million tonnes of mackerel, a quarter of the stock, migrated into its economic zone during the five-month summer feeding season. It plans to maintain this year's 17 percent share of the north Atlantic catch in 2011. It criticised the EU and Norway last month for failing to take that into account when they jointly decided to take 583,882 tonnes of mackerel in 2011, the majority of the amount that scientists say is ecologically safe to catch.
