The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has affirmed that the agreement reached between the delegations of both parties, after the consultations and negotiations carried out in recent weeks, provides stability to the Spanish fleet.
Luis Planas, has opined that the definitive approval of the Council of the European Union to sign the agreement of the total allowable catches (TAC) and the fishing quotas shared for 2022 with the United Kingdom “will provide the necessary stability to the Spanish fleet for that he can carry out a correct planning of his activity “,
This morning the agreement was closed between the delegations of both parties, after consultations and complex negotiations carried out in recent weeks, which ends with the objective of developing by 2022 the trade and cooperation agreement in the field of fishing.
In addition to setting the fishing opportunities, the agreement includes requests for scientific advice for the future management of some species, flexibilities, technical measures or quota exchanges between both parties.
For Spain, the agreement is, in general, satisfactory, since the catch levels set for the different populations of interest that are caught in the waters of France, Ireland and the United Kingdom, follow the available scientific recommendations, but minimising reductions in some fish stocks.
Thus, for northern hake, a reduction of the TAC of 20% is agreed, a lower reduction than that proposed by the scientific recommendation, in application of the provisions of the multiannual community plan for western waters, but always within the ranges of sustainability.
In the case of gallos, there were increases of up to 7% in quotas, depending on the area, as well as for monkfish, with an increase of 8% in Gran Sol, with the exception of western Scotland.
The result is also important for those species for which Spain has no allocation and which may be strangulation species within the framework of the landing obligation. The TACs for deep-sea species (mainly sea bream and alfonsinos) are maintained, and in the case of cod for the west of Scotland stock the TAC is maintained, while in the Celtic Sea it is reduced by 20%, But in both cases, it is estimated that the quotas that Spain can acquire through the existing exchange and exchange mechanisms (known as “swaps”) will be sufficient to cover the levels of annual accidental catches of the Spanish fleet.
Some stocks such as the Cantabrian horse mackerel are also set in this agreement as they are part of a broader biological population that includes UK waters, where the result is a 12.6% decrease in the TAC in accordance with the available scientific recommendation.
In the coming weeks, the process will begin for the transposition of this agreement into Community legislation through the annual TAC and quota Regulation and for which provisional quotas had been adopted for these fishing species shared with the United Kingdom for the first quarter of 2022. in the past Council of Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries of the EU.
