Spain will promote the setting of multi-annual fishing quotas from 2024 during its Presidency of the EU Council

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has expressed his satisfaction with the foreseeable adoption from 2024 of a system of total allowable catches (TACs) for certain species on a multi-annual basis - instead of annually, as at present - for certain species.

It will be during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), in the second half of this year, when progress will be made on this measure, according to Luis Planas, who is participating today and tomorrow in Luxembourg in the last Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers under the Swedish Presidency.

Planas recalled that it was Spain that proposed a system of multi-annual fishing quotas for stocks in EU waters, with the aim of increasing the efficiency and predictability of the European fleet's activity. The fact that the European Commission (EC) has accepted this proposal shows that "we can start this journey in a forward-looking and constructive spirit during the next six months".

By 2024, the fishing possibilities, following the scientific recommendations of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), suggest that, in general, the biological situation of the fishing grounds has improved, so "we should all congratulate ourselves on the good situation of the fishery resources we manage", according to the minister.

Planas stressed that "a level of biological sustainability has been reached in the majority of fishery resources that are at maximum sustainable yield" and stressed that we must "continue to reinforce the socio-economic dimension of this sustainability" because, he stressed, "without profitability, there is no sustainability".

He has therefore proposed certain changes to the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) to develop the necessary process of modernisation and decarbonisation of the fleet in the coming years.

Common Fisheries Policy

At the meeting, the ministers also discussed the content of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) package presented by the Commission last February, to which Spain objected after its publication. Now, Luis Planas has assured that he supports the wording of the latest proposal, which he considers "realistic" and more balanced.

The minister informed that Spain has participated in its debate with a "constructive approach", in line with the latest conclusions of the Council, which recognises that the implementation of the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy of the European Green Pact is perfectly compatible in Marine Protected Areas with sustainable and responsible fishing, including bottom trawling.

On the necessary decarbonisation of the fisheries sector, which will be the focus of the Informal Meeting of Fisheries Ministers to be held in Vigo on 17 and 18 July, Luis Planas argued that it is important to have an ambitious framework for financing and regulatory changes that will enable the sector's energy transition to be promoted and its dependence on fossil fuels to be reduced.

Eighty-one million euros from the agricultural reserve for Spain

Minister Luis Planas has welcomed the EC's proposal to mobilise 81 million euros for Spain from the agricultural reserve to respond to the drought and support the agricultural sector. This measure, requested by the Government of Spain and to be formally approved in the coming weeks, would make Spain the first recipient of extraordinary aid for the consequences of climatic phenomena, which has also been requested by Portugal, France and Italy.

In the afternoon, during this first day of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, the ministers discussed the proposal for a regulation on the Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products (SUR). The Swedish Presidency has presented a progress report that makes progress on aspects such as Integrated Pest Management, with the aim of reducing its administrative burden and making it more flexible in view of the enormous differences between European agriculture.

Luis Planas explained that the EC has confirmed that it will present the improved impact analysis on the Plant Protection Products proposal on 5 July, right at the start of the Spanish Presidency. The first debate on its content is expected to take place at the Council of Ministers on 25 July. The minister declared that this is a "complex dossier" in which it is necessary to reduce the use of plant protection products, but without leaving farmers unprotected against pests.

The EU ministers also analysed the animal health situation within the framework of the "One Health" concept, on which Spain has advocated the utmost rigour, as committed to by the chief veterinary officers and the heads of EU public health at their most recent meetings.

Bilaterals with Germany and the Netherlands

During the first day of the Council of Ministers in Luxembourg, Minister Planas also met with the German Minister for Fisheries and Agriculture, Cem Özdemir, and the Dutch Minister for Agriculture, Piet Adema, with whom he discussed matters of interest for the upcoming Spanish Presidency, as well as the informal Fisheries and Agriculture meetings that Spain will host in the coming months.

Non official translation