Small-scale fishing is of primary importance in Greece

The primary goal is for the EU’s fishing fleet to be economically viable, while especially for Greece small-scale fishing is of vital importance. This was emphasized, among others, by the Minister of Rural Development and Food, Lefteris Avgenakis, speaking at the informal Council of Fisheries Ministers, held in Vigo, Spain.

During his speech on “Investments for the Sustainability of the Fishing Sector: Pathway to Decarbonisation”, the minister noted that an economically sustainable fishing fleet goes through the adoption of new measures that will be properly thought out before, so that there are no social and economic impacts on the affected producers.

At the same time, he informed his counterparts, emphasizing the severe problem caused by the harefish and lionfish. The Ministry of AAT proposed, in the agenda of the next Council, to include the issue in order to find possible ways of dealing with the aim of limiting all the negative effects faced by the Mediterranean countries due to the specific fish. As the minister for Greece said, small-scale fishing is vital, as it accounts for over 90% of Greek-flagged vessels.

Mr. Avgenakis expressed his agreement on setting priorities and identifying those sustainable investments that will allow the construction of new vessels, which will be more efficient from an energy point of view. As he pointed out in his speech, Greece recently adopted a legislative framework for the possibility of increasing the capacity or even the power of propulsion engines.

However, the existing provisions of the Sea, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund are not sufficient and are prohibitive for the achievement of the energy transition. The retrofitting of a fishing vessel – regardless of size, with the aim of making it more energy efficient should be financed even if there is an increase in capacity and/or power. The same should apply to the construction of a vessel to replace another of the same or smaller capacity.

Finally, the Minister argued that institutional changes will be required to meet the EU carbonation target, such as a review of the capacity ceilings set out in the Common Fisheries Policy. The condition, however, is that the changes that will be made are linked to the energy transition, in order to avoid increasing the pressure on fishing stocks.