Spain's Secretary General for Fisheries, Isabel Artime, met with representatives of the Spanish fishing sector on 16 December.
Photo: Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
The Spanish government has confirmed it will finance changes needed to Spain's fishing fleet to ensure the maximum number of fishing days in the Mediterranean in 2025.
Fishing opportunities for the Mediterranean were agreed among EU member states at the Council of Fisheries Ministers held last week in Brussels. Under the terms of the agreement, the number of fishing days available to the fleet in the Mediterranean were just 27, a 79% reduction in fishing opportunities compared with 2024, which allowed for 130 days.
However, the parties agreed that this number of days could be extended to 130 in 2025 if the fishing boats operating in the Mediterranean adopt certain technical measures, including changing the mesh size of their fishing nets and installing flying trawl doors.
The agreement caused significant concern among Spain's fishing sector, with fears that the measures required by the European Commission would be too costly to implement by some members of the fleet.
The Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, had previously indicated that the government would be prepared to meet these costs. This week, on 16 December, Spain's Secretary General for Fisheries, Isabel Artime, met with representatives of the Spanish fishing sector to confirm the government's commitment to provide 100% financing, composed of European and national funds.
Artime met with regional representatives, entities representing the Mediterranean fishing sector and representatives of civil society to present the content of the agreement reached at the Council regarding the multiannual plan for demersal fishing in the western Mediterranean.
The meeting also analysed the different alternatives available to the Spanish Mediterranean trawler fleet to increase the fishing days initially allocated by improving the selection of fishing methods and adopting "time-space" bans on fishing activity.
According to a Spanish Government announcement, "The Secretary General has announced that the fishery will begin on January 1 with the allocation of a sufficient number of fishing days to work during the first months of the year, pending the application of the technical measures contemplated in the compensation mechanism that will provide the final number of days".
