Planas considers Norway’s “unilateral” stance when setting fishing quotas “unacceptable”

Brussels, Sep 18 (EFECOM).- The acting Spanish Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Luis Planas, described this Monday as “unacceptable” that Norway is setting fishing quotas unilaterally.

“Norway is maintaining unilateral positions regarding the establishment of total admissible catches and quotas that we find unacceptable,” declared the politician upon his arrival at the meeting of heads of Agriculture and Fisheries of the European Union (EU) being held today. in Brussels.

He added that if Norway “effectively intends to increase catches” to sell them to the EU, “we must play the principle of reciprocity from a commercial point of view and play our interests.”

He recognized that the Nordic State is “a friendly country, included in the Treaty of the European Economic Area.”

“But, honestly, I believe that the time has come to include fishing trade aspects in the negotiation with Norway,” said Planas.

At this Monday’s meeting of ministers, fishing issues will be addressed, such as the preparation of negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom and between the community club and Norway to distribute the catches in shared waters. The negotiations with Oslo and London themselves will take place between October and December.

Regarding the United Kingdom, Planas highlighted the “importance” of shared fish stocks and hoped that the agreement with London will be closed before December 10.

“I hope this is the case so that we do not have to make a proportional extension as has been done on some previous occasions,” he said.

He noted that Spain has a particular interest in northern hake, monkfish and porcupine crayfish.

As accessory species (those that are caught when the main objectives of the fishing are other fish), he highlighted bream, western horse mackerel or cod. EFECOM

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