By Mercedes Salas
Madrid, Dec 12 (EFE) .- The Spanish fishing sector faces the most important week of the year due to the negotiation in Brussels of quotas for 2021, Brexit, the World Trade Organization (WTO) discussions on world subsidies and an anomalous pre-Christmas sales campaign.
Each December the Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU) that decides the catches marks a hectic end of the year for seafarers, but this time adds political complications, such as the divorce with the United Kingdom.
A brooch to the year of the coronavirus, whose impact will be reflected in the turnover of fishing companies.
THE NEGOTIATION OF FEES
The EU Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries will meet on the next 15 and 16 to agree on the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) in their traditional end-of-year meeting, known for agreements in the wee hours of the morning.
The TACs regulate Atlantic fishing, but this time the plan for the recovery of fishing in the Mediterranean and a reduction of days at sea, which is highly criticized by fishermen, will also come into play.
Spain will seek more favorable quotas for its Atlantic fleet, compared to those proposed by the European Commission (EC), which propose cuts in species such as hake (-13%), rooster or Norway lobster in waters of the Cantabrian Sea, Galicia or the Gulf from Cádiz.
On the other hand, Spain rejects and will try to soften the EC project to cut slaughter days in Mediterranean waters by 15% for demersal species (hake or prawns).
But the negotiation of TACs is unique because the EC initially left open the quotas for species in northern waters (Scotland, Ireland or Great Sun), pending the Brexit negotiations.
The EU and the UK share one hundred fisheries and the transitional period for divorce ends on January 1; Community vessels still do not know if and how they will be able to continue fishing in British waters.
LAST MINUTE ON BREXIT
Fishing has taken center stage as one of the most emotional and difficult issues in the talks between Brussels and London on Brexit, the future of which will be revealed this Sunday.
The president of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, has stressed that the positions remain distant.
The UK aspires to control its waters, but the EU claims to maintain access to those fishing grounds for its fleet, where they have fished for decades or “centuries”, as Von der Leyen has emphasized.
In the absence of consensus, the EC has published contingency measures, such as a legal framework that would allow EU and British fishermen mutual access to their respective waters until December 31, 2021 or until there is a fishing commitment.
But there is a possibility that the UK will sever its ties with the EU on December 31.
GLOBAL NEGOTIATIONS IN GENEVA
On the other hand, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is holding its negotiations in Geneva to regulate fishing subsidies, with the aim of closing an agreement in 2020 and giving a signal to the international community, in favor of the oceans.
The WTO will report this week on the status of the works.
The objective of these discussions, which began in 2001, is to limit those “illegal” supports or those that add pressure to marine exploitation.
For shipowners, the impact of an agreement on aid for diesel or the modernization of ships is worrying.
CHRISTMAS UNCERTAIN
The fleet, aquaculturists, canneries and fishmongers face these pre-Christmas dates with uncertainty due to the impact of social restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic and the economic situation of citizens.
Christmas is crucial for the turnover of the sector, which in December obtains 10% or 15% of its annual income. EFE
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