The Minister of Agriculture, Water, Livestock, and Fisheries, Miguel Barrachina, has held a meeting with the presidents of the provincial federations of fishermen's guilds of the Comunitat Valenciana to inform them of the first advances achieved in Brussels in defense of a European regulation adjusted to the reality of fishing in the Mediterranean.
The meeting takes place after the meeting on September 3 in Brussels between the autonomous communities of the Spanish Mediterranean coast and the European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costas Kadis, where the proposal for an Omnibus Fishing Regulation that adapts community regulation to the particularities of the Mediterranean fleet was discussed, as detailed by the regional administration in a statement.
Barrachina emphasized that "Mediterranean fishing needs rules designed for Mediterranean fishing," while insisting that the Comunitat Valenciana will continue working alongside the other coastal autonomous communities so that the sector's demands "do not remain just good words, but end in real modifications."
He also highlighted that "the European Commissioner has shown a willingness to adopt measures that allow the fleet to go fishing with fair, viable, and adapted rules to their reality."
The Mediterranean communities conveyed in Brussels the urgency of acting on four major regulatory blocks: the Common Fisheries Policy, the Fisheries Control Regulation, the Multiannual Management Plan for Demersal Fishing in the Western Mediterranean, and the Services Directive regarding marine aquaculture.
In this meeting, the commissioner reported progress in four of the five areas raised: partial amendments to the Common Fisheries Policy, simplification of control for the artisanal fleet, increased funding through Fempa, and greater flexibility in the management of red shrimp within the Multiannual Management Plan for the Western Mediterranean.
Among the most relevant advances is the option to eliminate the double limitation that weighs on red shrimp, currently conditioned by restrictions on days and catches. According to the report of the meeting, this change could be carried out without modifying the regulation, through an agreement of the Council, presumably linked to the implementation of a 60-millimeter mesh.
Barrachina has emphasized that this issue is "a priority" for the sector, as the double limitation "has generated added pressure on a fleet that already bears too many restrictions and too much uncertainty."
Furthermore, the commissioner proposed replacing the criterion of the limiting species with an average of the set of reference species, with specific measures for those that are in worse biological condition. On this aspect, Brussels expects to receive a joint proposal developed by the Mediterranean autonomous communities.
In the words of the conseller, "the next step is to work on that proposal with the sector. We are not going to take a document to Brussels made without the fishermen's input. The voice of the fishing guilds must be at the base of any position we defend before the European Commission."
In the field of fishing control, the European Commission has opened the door to regulatory simplification aimed at facilitating the activity of the artisanal fleet, although it still needs to be specified whether that simplification will cover the entire Mediterranean fleet or just a part of it.
The regional official has reiterated that the Mediterranean model requires less bureaucratic burden and greater recognition of its real traceability. In this regard, the communities have advocated for strengthening control on land, at fish markets, first sale points, and official weighing, in addition to eliminating unnecessary obligations in short tides and allowing the grouped marketing of bycatch or 'peix de sopa'.
Barrachina has also valued the Council's proposal to raise the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund to 4 billion euros, although he has warned that "the funding must reach useful measures to renew the fleet, promote generational change, and ensure the viability of the fishing guilds."
Regarding the Common Fisheries Policy, the commissioner advanced partial amendments to the regulation, although it is still unknown which articles will be affected and whether they will incorporate the claims of the Mediterranean communities, including the legal recognition of the coastal fleet, the incorporation of fishing co-management, and the revision of the concept of fishing effort.
The conseller has reminded that "we do not ask for privileges. We ask that Europe understands that a small family vessel from the Mediterranean cannot be treated the same as other fishing models that have nothing to do with our reality."
Barrachina has reiterated that the Generalitat will continue to defend a fishing "profitable, sustainable, and with future," supported by proximity fishing, the brotherhoods, the fish market, local products, and the balance between the protection of the marine environment and economic viability.
Finally, he emphasized that "Valencian fishing has made enormous efforts. Now Europe also has to do its part and adapt the rules so that protecting the sea does not mean expelling fishermen from the sea."