Spain requires accelerate new fisheries pact between the EU and Morocco

March 19, 2012   Stock Market   No comments

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Spanish, Miguel Arias Cañete, on Monday to urge the European Union “to expedite the negotiations” a new fishing agreement with Morocco, three months after the European Parliament refused to extend it.

We will ask “that speed up the negotiations with Morocco,” said Arias Cañete, during a press conference in Brussels before a meeting with his counterparts from Agriculture and Fisheries of the European Union (EU), which share their priorities In order to achieve reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

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In mid-December the European Parliament rejected extending a fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco, benefiting especially the Spanish fleet, saying it was a waste and did not even have a significant commercial impact in the EU or in Morocco.

The decision dealt a serious blow yet to the Spanish ships, most Andalusian and Canarian fishing in these fisheries managed by Morocco, and Spain called for a “compensation” for damages, estimated in a “temporary” in more than 30 million euros.

At the meeting on Monday, Spain, representing 30% of the sector in the EU, will support the EU decision regarding the reform to achieve maximum sustainable yield by 2015. However, the Spanish government requested a relaxation in some places as the regulation to ban discards the unwanted catch that is returned to the sea.

According to Cañete, before banning discards must “analyze the causes which force fishermen to fish waste,” he said before meeting with Maria Damanaki, European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs.

Another of the points that cause more resentment in the Spanish fishing sector is the destination that Commissioner Damanaki wants to give relief funds for fisheries between 2014-2020, endowed with 6,500 million euros.

So Cañete, asked to stay for at least a “transitional period” aid to the scrapping of fishing vessels, which aims to eliminate Damanaki future European Fund for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs for 2014-2020. “We must make additional efforts to be to continue to fund the scrapping and temporary stoppages, at least for a long transitional period,” he said.

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