Eleven fishing vessels from the Canary Islands and Andalusia and their professionals, who were fishing in Moroccan waters and who have been unable to do so since Monday due to the termination of the current protocol between the European Union and the Alaouite Kingdom, have at their disposal since Tuesday the possibility of request emergency aid approved by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The objective of this first call is to cover the economic impact of the sine die stoppage in the activity of these fishermen who yesterday, in the port of Barbate, asked the Government for urgent solutions while waiting for them to return to the fishing grounds of the neighboring country. .
The ministry launched in the Official State Gazette (BOE) two lines of up to 302,000 euros, one of 120,000 euros that will be allocated to shipowners and another of 182,000 for crew members, 50% co-financed by the European Commission and the Government through the concept of "temporary stop" of ships. The subsidies will be channeled using the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (FEMP), the fastest formula to expedite receipt.
Only 11 of the 21 fishing vessels that applied for a license in 2021, 2022 and 2023 to operate in Moroccan waters can have access to these initial aid, Agriculture explained on Monday. These are seven vessels from the Canary Islands and four from Andalusia that fished for at least 20 days in the 2021-2023 triennium (the next vessel below this amount only worked three days) and that also meet the requirement set by the Commission Union of not having received more than 180 days of aid for temporary stoppage of the FEMP fund between 2014 and 2023.
There is a second block of vessels that also had a license to carry out their fishing activity in Moroccan waters, which fished for more than 20 days between 2021 and 2023, but which have already received the 180-day stoppage aid cap from European funds. Therefore, they cannot be entitled to the FEMP. For them, the Government assures that it is going to study an extraordinary line of State aid, paid exclusively by the national public coffers, explain sources from Agriculture, to compensate for the slowdown in its activity. Among these affected are six boats from Andalusia.
The renewal of the fishing protocol with the Kingdom of Morocco, which expired this Monday, is awaiting the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Two years ago the General Court of the EU sided with the Polisario Front, which claimed to block trade and fishing agreements with Morocco. The EU appealed the sentence.
The minister Luis Planas wanted to take advantage of the call for first aid to ensure that "this weekend the PP, in line with its usual hypocrisy, is getting into trouble about it." “Remember that the longest period in which a protocol has not been in force and it has not been possible to fish in the Moroccan fishing ground was between 1999 and 2004, with the Popular Party government. It was then precisely a PSOE government that resumed support for those negotiations between the European Commission and Morocco to achieve a new protocol in 2007”, added the head of the branch.
