Faroese Parliament has begun debates on whether to sanction two Russian fishing companies under suspicion for espionage activities.
On August 28, Faroese politicians began debating a new amendment proposed by Faroese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Industry, and Trade Sirið Stenberg, which would give the Faroese government the necessary authority to sanction Norebo and Murman Seafood, which have already been placed under sanctions by the E.U., Norway, and Iceland.
"If the Faroes don't do the same that our allies have done, we would be the only place in this whole area where ships that have been blacklisted by others could go," Stenberg said in her opening speech.
She further argued that the amendment would also give the government general authority to sanction any company suspected of espionage or hybrid warfare in the future.
"It's a very serious situation if we accept that other countries sanction but that we don't," she said. “Hopefully, [the Russian war with Ukraine] will end soon. There will be a day after the war.”
The Faroe Islands currently have a bilateral agreement with Russia that allows Russian ships access to fish in Faroese waters, mainly for blue whiting, herring, and mackerel. In return, Faroese vessels are permitted to fish cod, haddock, flatfish, and shrimp in the Russian part of the Barents Sea. Fishing cooperation between the two nations hearkens back to when the Faroe Islands signed a deal with the Soviet Union in 1977.
Norway also has a fishing agreement in place with Russia, which is now in jeopardy after sanctions were placed on the two companies in Norway.
“The actions of the Norwegian side will inevitably lead to the destruction of the effective system of management and regulation of fisheries in the North Atlantic, which has been built up over many decades and is designed to ensure the long-term rational exploitation of joint aquatic bioresources,” Rosrybolovstvo Head Ilya Shestakov said in response to the Norwegian sanctions.
Not everyone in Faroese Parliament aligns with Stenberg’s line of thinking.
Bjarni Hammer, the chairman of the Foreign Policy Council in Faroese Parliament, said that if the law passes, he recommended that the sanctions not be implemented until next year when the bilateral agreement needs to be renewed or renegotiated.
The Conservative People's Party, an opposition party to Stenberg’s, has already announced that it will not support the bill. One of their representatives, Jacob Vestergaard, questioned who was actually a Faroese ally and pointed to an example when the E.U. sanctioned the Faroe Islands for a disagreement about the share of pelagic quotas in the Northeast Atlantic.
"The E.U. and Norway have never been our allies in fisheries – never," he said. "They still aren't today. They threaten us every second day."
The Faroese fishing industry has also been putting pressure on Faroese politicians to prevent them from passing the law.
"This could have great consequences for the Faroe Islands, so we're against it," said Hanus Hansen, chairman of the Faroese Shipowners Association in an interview with Faroese radio station KVF.fo. Hansen's own fishing company, JFK, catches a substantial part of the Faroe Islands' quota in the Barents Sea.
Norebo has drawn suspicion since at least June of last year, when the Netherlands banned all Russian fishing vessel access to its ports due to suspicious activity carried out by the company, such as Norebo vessels frequently docking near areas where military shipments are taking place. Accusations of suspicious activity carried out by Murman vessels go back even further.
Authorities have called out Murman Seafood fishing vessel Melkart-5 in particular as having engaged in “untypical behavior inconsistent with its regular economic practices and fishing activity,” according to E.U. officials.
“Melkart-5 showed highly unusual navigation practices in the immediate vicinity of a subsea cable in the Norwegian North Sea, crossing the cable multiple times immediately before the cable was severely damaged,” the E.U. said.
Norebo, for its part, has denied the accusations and said it is a non-political company purely in the business of delivering high-quality seafood.
“It is the management's concern to stress out, for the umpteenth time, that the accusations brought are false. There is no evidence that can be delivered by the E.U. authorities to ever substantiate their incorrect claims,” Norebo said in a statement. “It is, therefore, sad to see what ought to be the rule of law and fact degrade into mere biased politics.”
