(VALLETTA) - Visiting French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier complained Friday of a "lack of transparency" in the European Commission's decision to cut short the bluefin tuna fishing season.

Noting that Malta's Resources and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino had told him that the Mediterranean nation's bluefin tuna catch this year was two-thirds less than in 2007, Barnier said: "We'd like to know, we must know where the tunas are."

Both France and Malta "expect the (European) Commission to communicate the precise figures" on tuna stocks, he told AFP before leaving for Cyprus to wrap up a tour of European capitals in preparation for the French EU presidency.

He called for a "precise and competent and transparent working relationship with the European Commission on this subject."

The EU's executive arm called an early halt to industrial bluefin tuna fishing at the peak of the season this month because it considered that quotas were filling up much faster than member states were declaring.

The move released a wave of protest, especially in France and Italy.

Barnier said: "It is a fact that if the resource is fragile and endangered, this is not only a question for the European fishermen. We must reinforce the rules, the management and the controls for all the fishermen of the Mediterranean," including in Libya and Turkey.

Pullicino, for his part, said: "As much as we are for sustainable fishing, we are for transparent information to (EU) member states in order to be in a position ourselves as well to curtail what needs to be curtailed. We want to be partners with the (European) Commission."

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