At the time of those two bans, there was a serious talk about an EU-wide approach to the issue of seals. It was very clear where we had to put our energies; it was in fighting the EU-wide ban. It was also very clear, once that process started, that there was no point in taking the two countries to the WTO, because on the one hand, if you remember, the commission had drafted a directive that included a derogation clause. We would have been forcing the commission then to fight against the derogation clause in order to fight for the full ban, to be on the side of the member state countries. We didn't want that to happen. We needed to wait until there was something actually to fight EU-wide, which is where we are now.
On May 12th, 2009. See this statement in context.