The Plenary session of the European Parliament today approved the tuna fishing agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Kiribati, an agreement that will allow the European fleet, mostly Spanish tuna purse seiners, to capture tuna in the waters of these Western Pacific islands.
The agreement, valid for an initial period of five years, will be prorogued automatically if there is no opposition. During the first year of application, it is anticipated that six purse seiners and twelve European surface long liners can capture up to 8,400 M/T of tuna.
From the second year, the fishing possibilities are for fishing 6,400 tons of tuna, for four purse seiners and twelve surface longliners. The European Commission has proposed that the 70 percent of the licenses for purse seiners is assigned to Spain and that the 30 percent remaining go to the French fleet.
In the case of the long liners, the proposal is to assign to six vessels to Spain and another six to Portugal. Within the framework of the agreement, each communitarian ship will have to employ at least two citizens of the Kiribati Islands on board.