BRUSELAS, 12 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Fisheries Ministers of the European Union (EU) will celebrate this Monday in Brussels their second day of negotiations to agree on the fishing possibilities of the community fleet in 2023 with a first draft of an agreement on the table as a result of the first talks of this Sunday.
The Minister of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, who holds the rotating presidency of the Council until the end of the year, Zdenek Nekula, believes that this first draft compromise of the fishing quotas is a “good starting point” to reach a final agreement that guarantee fishermen to start their work on January 1, 2023 according to the new rules and conditions.
“We will continue the discussions until it is necessary to reach the final consensus”, assured the Czech minister upon his arrival at the second day of debate between the ministers that is being held this Monday in Brussels.
In this council in which the 27 must decide the Total Allowable Catches (TAC) and quotas for next year, Spain defends the 10% increase in the southern hake quota, although it also criticizes the reduction in fishing days in the Mediterranean, a reduction that the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, described this Sunday as “unacceptable”.
In fact, the reduction in fishing days without sufficient compensation for the adoption of selectivity measures as the most effective way to improve stocks, led Spain to vote last year against the proposal of the European Commission on TAC and quotas in the Mediterranean.
Likewise, Spain calls for the revision of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) proposal, which proposes cuts for other species such as sole (-11%), Cantabrian Norway lobster (-36%) or haddock (-10%) in the Atlantic Sea, where the Spanish fleet has interests in 18 of the 26 towns that will be the subject of negotiation.
The Spanish representation also advocates raising the percentage provided for in the compensation mechanism to recover a part, up to 3%, if certain conditions are met and reiterates the defense of the effectiveness of the use of more selective networks or other measures with which it could maximum sustainable yield for some stocks may be reached, as recognized by the EU’s own Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries.
