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Brussels – The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of the Government of Spain, Luis Planas, celebrated this Wednesday the “good results” of the agreement on the distribution of EU fishing quotas for 2025 finalized early this morning, in which Spain managed to include measures to mitigate the cut in trawling in the Mediterranean, while maintaining catches of some of the “most valued” species for the Atlantic fleet.
The European Union Fisheries Ministers have reached a unanimous agreement on the distribution of fishing quotas in community waters for 2025, which includes measures to mitigate the cut in trawling in the Mediterranean against the European Commission’s proposal that wanted to reduce fishing days by 79%, to an average of 27 working days.
The negotiations resulted in an agreement on the distribution of fishing in the Atlantic and the North Sea and for fishing opportunities in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, which focused the negotiating efforts of ministers to ensure the survival of the trawling fleet operating in the area.
What complicated the debate was this reduction in fishing efforts in the Mediterranean, which according to the sector was a “death sentence” for trawlers, which in the last five years have already endured a 40% cut in activity, limiting their working days to about 130 a year.
“The negotiations have been long and complex over the Western Mediterranean,” acknowledged the new EU Fisheries Commissioner, Costas Kadis, at a press conference at the end of the meeting, where he explained that “an extended compensation mechanism has been agreed that will alleviate the socioeconomic impact of the reduction in effort” for trawling.
Resorting to the compensation mechanism will partly mitigate the cut in trawling requested by Brussels, as it allows for the recovery of working days if certain environmental measures are met –a choice of 12– such as flying doors, the imposition of bans or the temporary closure of some areas to protect demersal species whose recovery concerns the Commission: hake juveniles and red shrimp.
“If these measures are applied, fishermen will be able to fish almost the same days,” defended the commissioner, who told the media that the Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, was “satisfied”.
“We have managed to neutralize the 79% reduction that would have reduced the fleet’s working days” from the current 130 to 27, highlighted Planas at a press conference, referring to the “radical” and “misfocused” proposal by the European Commission which, according to the sector, was a “death sentence” for trawling.
Planas pointed out that these more selective measures with the catches balance that 79% reduction and that only the sum of two of them –the use of 45mm nets in coastal fishing and 50mm for the entire trawling fleet– both already add up to an 80% compensation, so that, “in practical terms, fishermen will be able to have the same working days as in 2024.” (December 11)
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