During a meeting in Vigo with the European Commission, Spain’s Secretary General for Fisheries Isabel Artime stressed the need to adapt the Common Fisheries Policy to current realities and challenges facing the sector, stating that to achieve this a policy is needed that guarantees profitability, generational renewal, and fleet modernisation.
The message was conveyed this to the Director-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission Charlina Vitcheva at a meeting also attended by representatives of the Galician fishing industry.
Isabel Artime and Charlina Vitcheva discussed the implementation of the Vulnerable Marine Areas (VMAs) regulation, which is of particular interest to the industry. Isabel Artime highlighted the limited impact on the demersal longline fleet and the high socioeconomic cost of excluding fisheries from these areas.
The Secretary General for Fisheries also conveyed to the European Commission the significant efforts made by the Spanish fishing sector in recent years to achieve sustainability in its three dimensions: environmental, economic, and social, ‘because all of these are fundamental components of the present and future of the sector.’
At the same meeting, Spanish federation Cepesca, represented by Ivan Lopez, informed the director-general of concerns over the loss of fleet and fishermen, despite the recovery of fishing resources and as a result of current Common Fisheries Policy.
‘The fleet has been reduced by 28%, profitability has stagnated and the number of full-time fishermen has decreased by 33%, which indicates that the current policy has not met its socio-economic goals,’ he stated, reminding Charlina Vitcheva of the mandate of the European Commission (EC) to reduce bureaucracy by 25% and 35% for SMEs before the end of the current mandate, and making a request for clarity on how and in what time frames this reduction will be implemented.
Concerning the closure of 87 fishing zones, he expressed his disappointment at the difference between the messages of Commissioner Costas Kadis and the actions of the DG Mare, warning of the disproportionate impacts of the Vulnerable Marine Areas, as laid out in the latest STECF report, and of the need to change the scope of the rule’s implementation.
In conclusion, Ivan Lopez expressed his concern for the apparent support for the BlueManifesto within the Pact for the Oceans by DG MARE and that, in the opinion of the industry, this is ‘only a collection of prohibitions and limitations.’
