As part of their activities in the joint project Pillars of the Sea 2, ETF and Europêche met with the representatives of the Spanish government on 23 October. The primary aim of the meeting was to discuss the ratification of international instruments concerning work in the fishing sector.
The meeting was held in Torremolinos, during the Ministerial Conference on Fishing Vessel Safety and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing that was organized by IMO and the Government of Spain.
Brand Wagner from ILO started the meeting by presenting the progress and global challenges in the ratification of the ILO Convention 188 on Work in Fishing. Afterwards, a discussion was held on the potential benefits that Spain’s ratification of the convention would bring.
Social Partners welcomed Spain’s good inter-ministerial cooperation regarding fisheries, as well as the newly announced Spanish pledge to ratify the ILO Convention 188, but also stressed the need to implement other international regulations, for example, Cape Town Agreement on fishing vessels standards.
Social Partners also discussed the progress of the project ‘Pillars of the Sea 2’. The consultants from Key Traceability presented the mapping of the international conventions concerning decent recruitment of (migrant) fishers, while the International Maritime Health Association gave an update on the development of the guidelines for the medical examination of fishers.
‘Pillars of the Sea 2’ is an EU co-funded project that aims to implement parts of the working programme of the Social Partners on Sea Fisheries.