The Fisheries Ministers of the European Union have reached an agreement unanimously in the early hours of this Wednesday on the distribution of fishing quotas in community waters that includes measures to cushion the cut to trawling in the Mediterranean in the face of the European Commission proposal that wanted to reduce fishing days by 79%, to an average of 27 work days.
The agreement was reached after two days of meeting in Brussels, marked by Spain’s opposition to the cut in fishing days in the Mediterranean that the European Commission (EC) had proposed at the end of November. We still need to know the details and measures by which the days of work can be increased.
The negotiations included an agreement for the distribution of fishing in the Atlantic and the North Sea by 2025 and for fishing opportunities in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, which has focused the negotiating efforts of the ministers to guarantee the survival of the trawl fleet that operates in the area.
“The agreement reached today in the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (of the EU) will allow fish stocks to be maintained at sustainable levels and protect the marine environment, while also considering the viability of the sector,” wrote the Hungarian presidency of the Council. of the European Union in his profile on the social network X.
In a statement, the Council specified that “with regard to the Western Mediterranean, the ministers agreed to reduce the fishing effort of trawlers by 66% in Spanish and French waters and by 38% in French and Italian waters to protect the populations.” demersal, also taking into account the socioeconomic impact on the fleets.”
“The negotiations have been long and complex on the Western Mediterranean,” acknowledged the new EU Fisheries Commissioner, Costas Kadis, at a press conference at the end of the meeting.
The commissioner stressed that it was important for him to achieve a “balanced and responsible” agreement, which is why he has done “everything possible” to use “all the flexibilities allowed by the legal framework” to guarantee the balance between social and economic considerations. and environmental.
In that sense, he explained that fishermen can benefit from a “substantial” increase in the number of days they go out to sea to fish “if they commit to selectivity” (the ability of fishing methods to select the desired fish and sizes ), with the closure of sea areas to fishing and with the use of “innovative” fishing instruments.
As an example, he said that if a boat uses 15 millimeter meshes under certain conditions it can receive 50% more days of fishing. He indicated that the compensation mechanism includes a total of twelve measures like that.
He added that these twelve measures can be accumulated and that if a boat uses all of them it can fish “the same days or almost the same days that it fished this year.”
He explained that there will also be financing from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund “so that fishermen can request these measures.”
He stated that the Mediterranean agreement “addresses fishing mortality, which is still too high, preserves the livelihoods of fishermen in the long term and improves opportunities for the recovery of stocks” of fish.
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