Brussels  - Most people do not associate sharks with Europe - Jaws was filmed near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, not in Portugal.

But sustained demand for fins from Asia, and a growing appetite for shark meat back home, are placing many European cousins of the Great White on the path of extinction.

As Joe Borg, the European Union's fisheries commissioner, put it: "Many people associate sharks with going to the cinema, more than with beaches or restaurants. But the latest information we have confirms that human beings are now a far bigger threat to sharks than sharks ever were to us."

On Thursday, the European Union's executive in Brussels launched a series of proposals designed to help rebuild depleted sharks stocks in European waters.

These involve reducing catches, increasing scientific research and stepping up controls.

EU fleets fish about 100,000 tonnes of shark each year, about an eighth of the world's total catches.

Shark fin is considered a delicacy in Asia and can retail for anything between 1,000 and 10,000 dollars per kilogram in China. A third of all the fins exported to Hong Kong, the world's biggest importer, come from Europe, according to the Shark Alliance - an international coalition of about 60 conservationist organizations.

Most of the European fins which arrive in Asia are fished by Spanish, French, British, Italian and Portuguese fleets.

Meanwhile, more and more Europeans find themselves eating shark meat, whether knowingly or not. It is used to prepare "Schillerlocken" in Germany and Portuguese "Caldeirada" stew, but it can also be found in British fish-and-chip shops.

Within EU waters, most fishing takes place in the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. But there is also considerable activity in the Mediterranean Sea.

Limits on the amounts of catches are already in place, and "finning" - the practice of removing the fins and discarding the rest of the shark at sea - is illegal in the EU.

But slack controls mean that of the about 180 species found in Europe, a third are now threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Experts say sharks, skates and rays are particularly vulnerable to overfishing because they are slow to reach sexual maturity, have long gestation periods and a low fertility rate.

This means that "once stocks have collapsed it may take many decades for them to recover - if indeed they can recover at all," Borg noted.

The commissioner now wants to strengthen the ban on finning by making it illegal for fishermen to bring fins back to dry land.

Another proposed measure would involve increasing the number of inspectors aboard ships.

According to Shark Alliance, another merit of the commissioner's plan is that it formalizes the link between fishing limits and scientific evidence.

"The plan's commitments to science-based fishing limits, endangered species protection, and a strong finning ban are essential to securing a brighter future for some of Europe's most vulnerable and neglected animals," said Shark Alliance policy director Sonja Fordham.

But according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), it lacks teeth.

"The plan lacks a solid commitment to seek mandatory collection of data on shark catch - a critical element if the EU is to succeed in the conservation of these species," said WWF's Aaron McLoughlin.

Oceana, a Spanish pressure group, also criticized it for being to vague.

"At the very least, we were hoping for measures that accurately regulated the amounts of shark bodies and fins that could be landed in order to weed out illegal finning practices," said Rebecca Greenberg, shark campaigner with Oceana Europe.

Borg hopes that his proposals will be approved by EU governments and the European Parliament by the end of this year, so that the new rules may come into force by
2012 or 2013 at the latest.

The commissioner dismissed concerns that the economic recession may weaken governments' political will, noting that fishermen were far worst off a year ago, when surges in fuel prices made fishing uneconomical. dpa