Following the opinion of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee of 1 October, rejecting the draft agreement for an EU-Guinea fisheries partnership (see Europolitics3832), the Council of fisheries ministers, meeting in Luxembourg on 20 October, asked the European Commission to launch procedures for the withdrawal of the proposal. This procedure is the first sanction following the Guinean government’s use of violence, which at the end of September had caused the death of 100 civilians in Conakry. The agreement would have allowed the EU financing of up to €50,000 a year to develop Guinea’s fishing industry, in return for European Union boats having access to Guinean waters. While the Parliament’s opinion was not binding, it was convincing enough for the Council and the Commission to fall in behind.