The Maltese government’s demands for amendments on provisional quotas for tuna fishing have been accepted and have been included in the European Commission’s final document.

The document was unanimously approved at the end of a meeting for fisheries ministers on Wednesday night.

During the meeting, held in Brussels, Malta continued with its work to safeguard its interests in the sector, the Department of Information said. Malta was represented by Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino.

Mr Pullicino said the government is committed to safeguard the interests of Maltese fishermen and of tuna fishing, which is their main activity. He expressed his appreciation to European Commissioner Joe Borg and other EU members for their approval of the amendments proposed by Malta.

During a meeting held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, quotas for tuna fishing in countries that are members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic (ICCAT) Tunas were not fixed. This pushed the European Commission to decide on provisional quotas that need to be discussed again by ICCAT in Tokyo next month.

This meeting, in which European countries will be represented by the EU, will be held to divide the 29,500 tonnes of tuna allowed to be caught will be divided among those ICCAT members whose fishermen fish for tuna in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean.

Once this is established, the seven European state involved in tuna fishing – France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta – will have to decide on their allotment.