BRUSSELS / SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, March 20. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, defended trawling this Monday in Brussels against the European Commission's plan to eliminate it from all marine protected areas of the European Union (EU) by 2030, a proposal that in the minister's opinion it is "out of focus and unbalanced".
"We do not agree; trawling should not be demonized because wherever it is applied, the basic sustainable yield and the recovery of the fishing stock are produced", explained the minister upon arrival at the meeting with the rest of his community peers. .
Planas, who began his speech with words of remembrance for the late Pedro Solbes, criticized that what the Commission is defending is a "bad argument" because trawling is a modality with "very different" techniques.
"If I had to summarize the three communications and the Commission's report, I would say that it is unfocused and unbalanced, because it does not answer the fundamental question of food supply and because it does not take into account the needs of economic profitability and social consequences", the minister has asserted.
With regard to this fishing package, Planas' perception is that the vision of the rest of the Member States is "very similar to that of Spain", since the Twenty-seven have been waiting for a plan that would "enlighten" them but that " does not measure up" to what they expected, because while it considers it positive to maintain the protection of stocks in the future, it calls for taking into account the conditions in which this fishing is carried out.
"The Commission does not say anything about this and it is very shocking", acknowledged the minister, who has advanced that he will ask Brussels on what legal basis it intends to carry out its action plan since Community jurisprudence indicates that there must be a procedure of Codecision between the European Parliament and the Council.
Likewise, he has criticized that the protection package poses "very short" deadlines, of less than 24 months, to achieve the EU objective of guaranteeing the legal protection of its seas with the expansion of marine protected areas from the current 12% to 30%
With regard to the decarbonisation plan for the fishing fleet, Planas has expressed Spain's full support, since "in order to do 21st century fishing, 21st century boats are needed", for which he has called for "new investments and European support".
The minister has also stressed that this modernization of the fleet is linked to the generational revelation, necessary to guarantee the future of a sector that poses the "problem" of being "hard and dangerous", while acknowledging that working conditions in the ships are not "adapted to today's world".
"We need new boats for energy reasons but also for safety and comfort", Planas added.
