The General Director of Foreign Affairs and the EU, Jesús Gamallo (8th from the right), at the contact group meeting between the European Committee of the Regions (CdR) and the United Kingdom.
The General Director of Foreign Affairs and the EU, Jesús Gamallo, participated on March 29 in the meeting of the contact group between the European Committee of the Regions (CdR) and the United Kingdom, created to maintain the regional dialogue between the Union Union and the British country after Brexit.
This meeting was the group’s first since the European Commission and Rishi Sunak’s government signed the Windsor Pact, a political agreement on the Northern Ireland protocol.
In this month of March, the European Parliament approved a resolution on the Implementation Report on the Withdrawal Agreement of the United Kingdom from the EU. The document highlights the partial breach of the social rights of European citizens in British territory, mainly in administrative matters.
Regarding the Northern Ireland Protocol, he regrets the lack of cooperation with community personnel at the Irish border, the only land border that the United Kingdom has, and the lack of investment in Ireland. It also warns of the need to continue negotiating an agreement in relation to Gibraltar, after beginning the ninth round of negotiations last October.
The General Director of Foreign Affairs and the EU, Jesús Gamallo, highlighted the need to maintain contact between the EU and the British, despite their departure from the EU. “We continue to have common issues in all areas. At the local and regional level, these meetings allow us to better concretize this post-Brexit scenario”, he added. Before the meeting, Gamallo participated in the commemorative act of the European Parliament for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreements, which put an end to the armed struggle on the island of Ireland.
Contact Group
The Regional and Local Assembly of the European Union launched in 2020 a contact group with the local and regional authorities of the United Kingdom to ensure that the political dialogue continued at this level after Brexit. Led by the president of the French region of Brittany, the group is made up of 12 members of the CoR and representatives of the associations of municipalities in the United Kingdom and the governments and parliamentary assemblies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the London Council and the Government of Gibraltar.
fishing speaker
On the other hand, the General Director of Foreign Relations and the European Union participated on March 30 in the meeting of the Natural Resources Commission (NAT) of the European Committee of the Regions (CdR). At this meeting, Galicia was unanimously named as the rapporteur region of the opinion The Common Fisheries Policy on the ground: towards sustainable and resilient coastal communities in the EU.
The appointment of Galicia as rapporteur for this opinion reinforces the leadership position of the Galician Community in fisheries matters at the community level. Jesús Gamallo pointed out that, after the measures announced by the European Commission in recent months, it is great news that the voice of the most affected regions and municipalities will be taken into account. For Galicia, it is also “a great opportunity to contribute our knowledge and recognition of our work to defend our maritime-fishing industry.”
“We assume this work responsibly and we will develop it in contact with the sector. Our objective is that the position of the European regions on the future of the Fisheries Policy takes sustainability into account, as well as the social and economic dimension of a vital sector for us”, declared the general director.
The elaboration of the opinion is the CdR’s response to a conglomerate of regulations that started with the veto of the European Commission on bottom fishing in 87 areas of the northeast Atlantic. The first measures, which entered into force in October 2022, were increased in February, when the Commission urged Member States to ban trawling in 20% of their waters by March 2024.
The Xunta de Galicia has just presented the request for the intervention of the Community as an intervening party in the appeal against the decision presented by the Organization of Fisheries Producers of Burela. In addition, the Galician Parliament unanimously rejected the veto in September 2022, when it was presented.
Galicia in the NAT commission
In this seventh term of the CoR that began at the beginning of 2020, Galicia participates in the Natural Resources commission (NAT) and in the Citizenship, Governance and Institutional and Foreign Affairs commission (Civex). NAT prepares the opinions of the European municipalities and regions in areas such as the Common Agricultural Policy, fisheries, tourism or public health.
