No one knows yet how many will support the commission’s proposal when the commission's antidumping committee meets Thursday.

Fritz-Harald Wenig, the commission’s directorate for foreign trade (DG Trade) who the Norwegian salmon industry fears most, spearheaded the process against Norway. He was en route to Moscow last week and could not comment.

The EU source said there are rumors a subsidy complaint against Norway could be lodged, "but it’s about time an end was put to all this. We are looking for a peace agreement."

“Salmon prices have been as low as €2.30 ($2.71) per kilo. Then no one earns any money, not even the Norwegians. No one has anything to gain from industrial activity where everyone’s a loser. Cannibalism is a lose-lose situation.”

When asked if it was possible to have a regime where the MIP can be regulated in relation to the market price on a global scale, the source replied, “Certainly. Such a mechanism is stated in both the EU and World Trade Organization’s (WTO) regulations. But then someone must first be able to prove that the costs of producing salmon are declining and that market prices are doing the same.”

The secretary of the Danish industrial organization Dansk Fisk, Poul Melgaard Jensen, told NTB last Friday that things are moving toward a new MIP agreement that is slightly ”worse” than the provisional agreement that applies until Jan. 22.

The current MIP agreement is based on €2.81 ($3.31). The commission is proposing that it is lowered by 1 euro cent from Jan. 23.

“The serious aspect is that this concerns a permanent agreement that could remain in force for up to five years. That is why we are now endeavoring to arrange a time limit in the agreement that is shorter than five years and to have flexibility in relation to terms and conditions for price and productivity. The salmon industry is dynamic, and much can change in a short space of time,” Melgaard Jensen said.

IntraFish asked the Brussels source if it were possible for the MIP regime to have a briefer validity than five years.

“Five years is the norm. But a shorter regime can be requested already after a short period of time.”

The source said that it could be possible with a request after six months, but that production levels do not plummet overnight, as it takes three years to produce a salmon, repeating that the whole issue has taken up so much of the commission’s time that it is about time to find closure.

The source dismissed the idea that the commission could drop the salmon case against Norway if the British Prime Minister Tony Blair asked for this.

"The EU system does not function that way," the source said. " Dumping surveys are a technical procedure, not political. The result is based on facts and figures.”

IntraFish has previously reported that the Norwegian authorities have ”threatened” to appeal the EU’s MIP regime to the WTO. Representatives for the Norwegian authorities disliked the wording in the article. They pointed out that Norway has reserved its rights in accordance with the WTO’s regulation, and denied they use threats in any event.

“We don’t threaten. We do not use such undiplomatic language,” said Norway’s representatives.

IntraFish posed the same question to the EU source.

“We will not comment on what our opinion is of Norway’s official reply to the hearing round. But we really believe that the EU’s measures in the salmon case are in complete agreement with the WTO’s regulations. But as I said, we don’t want the salmon case to drag on for all eternity. It’s about time a peace settlement was struck,” said the source.

When asked for a comment on rumors of an important meeting concerning the salmon case due to be held in Brussels on Friday, the source declined to give specifics.

“Meetings are held all the time that concern the salmon case,” the source said.

EC wants end to salmon fight, but free trade not an option