Spain Affirms Sovereignty Over Canary Islands Waters Despite UN Fishing Zone Classification

"Neither the denomination nor the delimitation of the different divisions of the fishing zones used exclusively for statistical purposes by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), have absolutely no effect on the sovereignty of the waters to which it refers," the government stressed in its response to a question from Vox, to which Europa Press had access.

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The far-right party was asking whether the government was considering taking steps to challenge this classification of the Canary Islands waters in the Moroccan fishing zone. This zone including the Canary Islands waters has "existed for more than 30 years", on the proposal of the Central East Atlantic Fisheries Committee and has been recorded in several documents of the organization and in at least two Community regulations, recalls Vox.

"If no controversy has been raised about this in these 30 years, it is precisely because its exclusively statistical scope is known," insists Sanchez’s Executive, who urges not to make the public believe that the sovereignty of Spanish waters is threatened.