Spain stands before the proposal of the European Commission on quotas and fishing conditions in the Mediterranean for 2025and this has been confirmed upon his arrival at the Council of the branch this Monday in Brussels, Minister Luis Planas. Everything starts from the fact that the idea of ​​Brussels would mean for the Spanish trawl fleet in the Mediterranean a 79% reduction in fishing days. Therefore, the sector could only fish a total of 27 days per year, something that Spain considers it “unacceptable.” It is prepared to block the agreement, in fact, forming a ‘team’ with France and Italy.
“It is a very complex negotiation,” assumed the Minister of Agriculture before entering the conclave, while recognizing progress and a good global perspective with regard to the Atlantic. “I can’t say the same about the Mediterranean,” he warned. “The Commission’s proposal seems unacceptable to us because it means not taking into account the efforts made by fishermen in the last 5 years. We have reduced the number of working days by up to 40%,” summarized Planas, who defends that Spain wants “a balance between profitability and sustainability.”
Furthermore, it focuses on the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen: “She emphasizes the need to reach shared agreements but then makes this proposal, that seems radical and unfocused to usbecause we cannot pretend that the only problem in the Mediterranean is fishing; “You cannot fix all the problems in a single year.” Likewise, the Government defends the work done in recent times and assures that its attitude is “constructive.”
But the position is tremendously critical. “From the point of view this proposal is also nonsense. Spain has 3,500 km of Mediterranean coast; The end of bottom trawling activity could have a very high impact from the point of view of employment. Spain is not willing to do this. We will only support an agreement that defends the interests of our fishermen,” Luis Planas concluded before journalists.
“We have reached a common basis between Spain, France and Italy, where we not only ask for a moratorium“But we are working on the possibility of a technical alternative to continue making our fishing industry viable,” the minister had warned days ago, with a position contrary to the proposal by the rest of the political parties. In this scenario, in fact , diplomatic sources assume that the summit may last until Wednesday.