Aurora de Blas, Spain's Director General of Fisheries and Aquaculture Management, has called for redoubling efforts to spend European Union fisheries funds, warning that the country risks losing money under a "decommitment rule" being applied for the first time this year.

Speaking at a meeting of the fund's monitoring committee in Gijón, de Blas insisted on the need to certify a total of €178 million by the end of this year. Under the EU's "n+3" rule, funds allocated for 2022 will be automatically lost if they are not included in a payment request submitted to the European Commission before December 31, 2025.

Spain is the largest recipient of the European Maritime Fund for Fisheries and Aquaculture (EMFAF), with an allocation of €1.12 billion for the 2021-2027 period, which rises to €1.574 billion with national contributions. To date, grants totaling €631.8 million have been awarded, and public aid of €347 million has been approved across 9,382 applications.

To accelerate spending, de Blas called for the simplification of administrative procedures and for fund management to be adapted to the realities of the sector.

Source - https://www.bairdmaritime.com