The Calpe Fishermen's Guild has rallied this morning in the fishing port to express its most emphatic rejection of the European Commission's proposal to reduce the number of fishing days per year in the Mediterranean from 130 to 27, a cut that would seriously jeopardise the continuity of the fishing sector.
This is a measure that will be debated at the EU Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers, which is taking place today in Brussels. A Valencian delegation of fishermen's representatives has travelled to the Belgian capital, including the head of the Calpe Fishermen's Guild, Paco Catalá.
The secretary of the Calpe Fishermen's Guild, Santos Pastor, described as ‘unsustainable’ the proposal that ‘leads to the closure of what we know as inshore extractive fishing, trawling in the Mediterranean’ and pointed out that it is ‘unheard of that this measure is being proposed without knowing the results of the 2020 - 2024 Multiannual Plan’.
‘From the fishing sector we will not allow, and we will demonstrate every day, our rejection of this proposal and we will defend the way of being and working that we have inherited from our ancestors and that we intend to maintain in the present and in the future,’ he said.
The rally was attended by numerous citizens and members of the municipal corporation, including Mar i Terra councillor Mariola Mulet.