“There has to be consequences when a country attacks another country.”
So said the Faroese Social Democratic opposition party Javnaðarflokkurin in a statement to Courthouse News amid heated political debates on the Faroe Islands’ 45-year-old trade deal with Russia on mutual fishing quotas in the Nordic seas.
”We are against the current fishing agreement for moral reasons and can no longer defend the people we cooperate with,” the party said, adding, “Yet of course it is important to find a solution to the many people who would lose their jobs.”
The agreement allows Russian vessels to capture 100,000 tons of herring, mackerel and blue whiting close to Faroese shores in the Norwegian Sea annually, while Faroese fishermen get access to 25,000 tons of cod further north in the Barents Sea.
Each year, the countries’ civil offices renew the deal more or less automatically. However, the war in Ukraine and massive trade boycotts again Russia from other European countries have led several Faroese politicians to call for stopping the renewal of the fishing deal in 2023.
Hans Ellefsen, associate professor of resource economics at the University of the Faroe Islands, said in an interview the issue will likely be a hot potato in national elections next month.
Ellefsen noted that 15 to 20% of the Faroe Islands´ annual gross domestic product comes from the fishing industry, which employs about the same share of the population. In addition, fish is more or less the only local export product.
The Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 18 islands, are geographically isolated north in the Atlantic Ocean near Scotland, Norway and Iceland. They are formally a self-governing part of the kingdom of Denmark, which also includes Greenland.
The Faroese people have a strong and close sense of community and their culture is shaped by being close to the rough sea. The landscape is bare, and logistics and infrastructure make it challenging to export goods and services.
Ellefsen called the prospect of potentially cutting the trade agreement with Russia a blow to the local fishing sector but not a detrimental one.