The general secretary of the shipowners’ employer Cepesca, Javier Garat, believes that the agreement adopted in the early hours of this Saturday at the Council of the European Union (EU) on fishing quotas for 2026 is the best possible result for Spain due to the difficulty of the negotiations, especially during the days in the Mediterranean. Mediterranean fishing boats will be able to operate 143 days in 2026, a similar number to this year, compared to an initial proposal of just 9 days. However, they will have to apply measures that guarantee the sustainability of the caladeros, but, as stated by the Minister of Fisheries Luis Planas, “there will be no new selective measures, only with the current ones, last year it will be possible to reach these 143 days”. Garat assured EFE that, “objectively, it was practically impossible to obtain a better result for Spain according to the negotiating conditions and the proposals of the European Commission (EC) itself.”
In the Mediterranean red prawn, the catch possibilities will be as low as in 2025, at 708.3 tonnes. Furthermore, Garat appreciated that the European Commissioner for Fisheries, Costas Kadis, publicly committed to the Council to reform the regulation on the recovery plan for fishing in the Mediterranean which has reduced the activity of the fleet over the years and that “it is essential that it is modified”. “In fact, our fishermen would like to have more fishing days, because they need them. But knowing the progress of the negotiations, the position of the European Commission (EC) and the difficulties, thanks to the common position with France and Italy, Spain has managed to maintain these days,” he said.
Press clippings in the Atlantic
For the Atlantic Ocean, fishermen receive “good and bad” news, depending on their species. Positive points include the 60% increase in the share of the mouth of the Gulf of Cádiz, 8% in the share of anchovy from northwest Cantabria and the 17% increase in the amount of red. Spain will have 1,155 tonnes more bluefin tuna than in 2025, with a quota of 7,938 tonnes. Garat deplored the reduction of the Gulf of Cádiz quota to 40%, but also appreciated a statement from the Commission and Spain on carrying out a new scientific study on the state of the fishery to determine whether it is possible to increase catches. In the case of the abbey, the reduction in costs will be 13% compared to the 26% proposed at the start of the negotiations, while in the language a reduction of 28% was proposed and it fell to 9%, and in the bacaladilla it was reduced to 40%. In the cabal (green or xarda) is falling a reduction of 70% – because the negotiations with Norway, the United Kingdom and the Faroe Islands are still ongoing – and therefore, a provisional total of admissible catches will be established, from which 90% of the 30% that goes to the fishermen will be applied, according to Cepesca.
For the councilor of the Mar de la Xunta de Galicia, Marta Villaverde, the result of the agreement does not seem “at all satisfactory” because the cuts of species such as caballa and bacaladilla are consolidated. “We will wait to see if there is some kind of mechanism that we can articulate from Galicia to help the sector increase these fishing opportunities,” he explained in statements to the press in Brussels, where he followed the marathon negotiations between Brazilian states and the European Commission to set catch limits.
Villaverde in particular lamented the restrictions the cabal will face, particularly while awaiting distribution deals with coastal states like Norway. Against the southern merluza, the most emblematic and prized species of Iberian caladeros, Spain is consolidating its budget for next year with which it will be able to access 17,445 tonnes of this species, a figure that the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Luis Planas, described as “magnificent” before starting the meeting with his European counterparts.
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