A fishing boat in Greek waters.
Photo: Adobe Stock.
The European Commission has this week proposed new rules for fishing in the Mediterranean and Black Sea for 2026.
For the Western Mediterranean, the Commission said it intends to keep current measures in place, including limits on how much time trawlers and longliners can spend fishing, caps on the amount of deep-water shrimp that can be caught, and a scheme that rewards trawlers for using more selective gear and avoiding areas where juvenile or spawning fish are found.
In the Adriatic Sea, the plan continues limits on fishing for species like cod and sole, with the goal of making sure these fisheries are sustainable by 2026. It also covers small pelagic species, such as anchovy and sardine, which are key to local fishing economies.
Meanwhile, in the Black Sea, the Commission suggests keeping current catch limits for sprat, and also proposes quotas for turbot, based on an existing regional plan.
The Commission said the proposal reflects earlier commitments made by Mediterranean and Black Sea countries under the MedFish4Ever and Sofia Declarations, which set out shared goals for sustainable fishing, better data collection, and tackling illegal fishing.
Final details of the plan for 2026 will depend on fresh scientific advice and decisions made by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) which will be hosted in November, in Malaga, Spain.
EU fisheries ministers are due to discuss the plan in December, and if approved, the new rules will take effect from 1 January 2026.
Last year's negotiations over Mediterranean fishing opportunities proved contentious and protracted, with objections by Spain, Italy and France over the European Commission's initial proposal to reduce fishing opportunities by 79%. In the case of the Spanish fleet, this would have left each vessel with only 27 days of fishing, according to the Spanish government.
Eventually a deal was hammered out, after what the Spanish Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Luis Planas described at the time as "two intense days of very complex negotiations" which were the most "difficult and intricate” he had undertaken.
The final agreement gave the Mediterranean fleet between 120-130 fishing days, provided they applied compensatory management measures to ensure sustainability of fish stocks, including changing the mesh size of fishing nets used by trawlers, and installation of flying doors on vessels.
Last week, Planas said modification of fishing nets had been carried out by 90% of Spain's trawler fleet, fully funded by the Spanish government at a cost of over 1 million euros, and that flying doors had been installed on 200 vessels. He added that his main priority during the forthcoming negotiations would be to secure more working days for the Mediterranean fleet in 2026, and argued for reform of Mediterranean fishing regulations to make quotas for different species more flexible.
In June, Spain's Secretary General of Fisheries in Spain, Isabel Artime, argued that further reductions in fishing effort in the Mediterranean would jeopardize the viability of the fleet and fishing communities, and called for the removal of the article in the Mediterranean multiannual plan that links fishing effort to the status of the most vulnerable species, hake.