The EU reaches an agreement on fishing for 2025 in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean

Regarding the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea in particular, the maximum amount to be fished has been defined in 16 different species.

December 11 2024 (10:43 WET)
Updated in December 11 2024 (10:43 WET)
A fishing boat in the Canary Islands. Photo: Gobcan.
A fishing boat in the Canary Islands. Photo: Gobcan.

The Fisheries Ministers of the European Union (EU) managed to unanimously close an agreement this Wednesday on fishing opportunities in community waters of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean in 2025, as reported by the Council of the EU and the European Commission.

The agreement was reached after two days of meetings in Brussels, marked by Spain's opposition to the reduction in fishing days in the Mediterranean that the European Commission (EC) had proposed at the end of November.

"The agreement reached today at the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council will allow us to maintain fish stocks at sustainable levels and protect the marine environment, while also considering the viability of the sector," wrote the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union on its X social network profile.

In a statement, the Council specified that "with regard to the western Mediterranean, the ministers agreed to reduce the fishing effort of trawlers by 66% in Spanish and French waters and by 38% in French and Italian waters to protect demersal stocks, also taking into account the socio-economic impact on fleets."

The European Commissioner for Fisheries, Costas Kadis, assured in a press conference after the meeting that "to encourage sustainable practices that protect fry and increase selectivity" in the Mediterranean, a compensation mechanism was agreed "that will also alleviate the socio-economic impact" of the reduction in fishing days.

In that sense, he explained that fishermen can benefit from a "substantial" increase in the number of days they go out to sea to fish "if they commit to selectivity" (the ability of fishing methods to select the desired fish and sizes), with the closure to fishing of sea areas and with the use of "innovative" fishing instruments.

As an example, he said that if a boat uses 15-millimeter nets under certain conditions, it can receive 50% more fishing days. He indicated that the compensation mechanism includes a total of twelve measures like that.

He added that these twelve measures can be accumulated and that if a boat uses all of them, it can fish "the same days or almost the same days that it fished this year."

He explained that there will also be funding from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund "so that fishermen can apply for these measures."

He stated that the agreement on the Mediterranean "addresses fishing mortality, which is still too high, preserves the livelihoods of fishermen in the long term and improves opportunities for the recovery of fish populations."

He acknowledged that they were "long and complex" negotiations and assured that he did "everything" in his power "to resort to the maximum flexibility allowed by the legal framework to ensure the best possible balance between social, economic and environmental considerations."

He added that the message that is wanted to be sent is that fishing will continue "practically the same days, almost the same fishing possibilities but in a more sustainable way."

Among the main elements relating to the Atlantic and the North Sea, Kadis said that 16 total allowable catches (the maximum amounts of a fish population that the EU can fish) have been agreed at sustainable levels and that the agreement will allow us to "increase our sustainability record, while maintaining the objective of our common fisheries policy."

"No one will leave saying that they have achieved everything or that they have lost everything. It is an acceptable minimum common denominator for everyone," said the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, István Nagy.

The European Commission's initial proposal for the Mediterranean would have meant a 79% reduction in fishing days for the Spanish trawler fleet in those waters, so that these boats could only go to sea 27 days a year.

Upon his arrival at the ministers' meeting last Monday, the Spanish Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Luis Planas, assured that this proposal from Brussels was "clearly unacceptable." 

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