Defending Artisanal Fishing

The Socialist Party (PSOE) of Fuerteventura has succeeded in bringing the demands of the island’s and the Canary Islands’ artisanal fishing sector to the European Parliament. There, socialist MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar highlighted that the European Union fails to apply its own specific guidelines for outermost regions (RUP) in fisheries, penalising the sector with “irrational requirements” such as the digital logbook.

José Cabrera, Secretary for Municipal Policy, Primary Sector, Food and Food Sovereignty of the PSOE of Fuerteventura, praised the work carried out by Majorcan and Canary socialists together with the archipelago’s fishing brotherhoods to protect the sector. He argued in the European Parliament that Brussels is breaching its own commitments to RUPs in fisheries, endangering the medium‑term viability of the industry.

“Support for Canary artisanal fishing must involve demanding, across all EU institutional levels, the implementation of specific policies for outermost regions that promote generational renewal and the zoning of capture areas with sustainability criteria that preserve fish populations and traditional fishing methods,” explains José Cabrera.

“The key to achieving this boils down to ‘one man, one hook’, and to safeguarding the artisanal fishing activity of Fuerteventura and the Canary Islands against industrial fishing operations capable of devastating island fishing grounds,” he adds.

In response, MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar voiced the sector’s demands in the European Parliament, emphasizing the need for Brussels to:

• Apply specific RUP fishing guidelines.
• Implement support policies for artisanal fishing and generational renewal.
• Zone capture areas to ensure sustainable development and control fishing through traditional methods.

“We have managed to raise these demands from Fuerteventura to Brussels, defending fairness, common sense, and the rights of Canary artisanal fishing within the framework of outermost regions,” concludes José Cabrera.