Spain’s Minister of Fisheries Luis Planas proposes reviewing regulations applied to Mediterranean fisheries to achieve more efficient management.
He requested support from the Member States to make the new fisheries control regulation more flexible, which he described as ‘an essential pillar of the Common Fisheries Policy’, but stressed the urgent need ‘to better adapt it to the reality of the fleet, especially the artisanal fleet, simplify its application and reinforce the objectives of the fisheries policy.’
Speaking in Brussels at the Council of Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries of the European Union on behalf of Poland, Latvia, the Czech Republic, France, Belgium and Portugal, he requested a modification of some of the provisions he further described as ‘disproportionate’ and ‘in practice, impossible to comply with.’
Luis Planas proposes that the obligation to register catches from zero kilos be maintained, but that deviations in estimating quantities less than 50kg should not be considered a breach and should not be classified as serious infringements.
He reiterated, as he did in 2025, the need to revise the Mediterranean regulations for more efficient management of mixed fisheries. In this regard, he stressed the importance of not basing reductions in fishing effort (fishing days) on the most vulnerable populations.
