This is unacceptable. While the president of the Port Authority of Las Palmas, Beatriz Calzada, and the entire economic apparatus of the Canary Coalition were in Agadir, Morocco, exploring cooperation programs to incorporate into the budgetary entries of European funds, the EU was courting Mauritania’s power in the Gran Canaria capital. Thus, Las Palmas became, on Monday, January 26, 2026, the diplomatic bunker where the European Union and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (RIM) decided the future of their waters. And the business that in theory should pass through the port of Las Palmas. A coincidence of agendas that underscores the role of the Canaries as the ‘control board’ remotely managing fishing in West Africa. And where Brussels bypasses the Statute of Autonomy of the Canaries and Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU regarding the famous RUPs. In the salons of the AC Iberia Hotel, far from the media spotlight, the Joint Mauritania-EU Fisheries Commission kicked off. It was not a procedural meeting. On the table, the Mauritanian Secretary-General, Sidi Ali Ould Sidi Boubacar, and the head of the European delegation, Luis Molido, were set to audit an agreement that involves 60.8 million euros annually and authorizes the catch of up to 288,000 tons of fish. The specter of the Margiris looms over the Iberia. The atmosphere of the meeting was marked by the shadow of a 142-meter long vessel: the Margiris. The ‘monster of the seas,’ whose presence in Mauritanian waters has triggered public opinion fires and criticism from local fishermen, forced the Nouakchott authorities to include ‘strategic communication’ in the agenda. The official message was clear: the industrial vessel complies with the quotas, but the shortcoming has been informative. The vessel is Lithuanian. The Mauritanian delegation, which included the commander of its Coast Guard and senior officials from Finance and Foreign Affairs, arrived in Las Palmas intending to safeguard the governance of its resources. The discussion was not limited to nets and licenses; they debated the additional 16.5 million euros allocated to combat illegal fishing and scientific support, an area where the EU seeks redemption in the face of overexploitation criticisms. A logistics of ‘silence’ and precision. The choice of Las Palmas for this summit is not trivial. While Calzada witnessed cooperation framework programs in Agadir, the Canary capital served as territory for French, Lithuanian, Polish, and Spanish delegations to finalize the figures for 2024 and 2025. The current protocol, effective until November 2026, includes an automatic renewal, a mechanism that the delegations began to grease this Monday. For Mauritania, EU support represents a vital injection of 3.3 million annually for its sectoral development; for Brussels, it is the guarantee that its pelagic fleets continue operating in one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, officially. Dockside geopolitics. The session concluded with a commitment to strengthen ‘sustainable exploitation,’ a diplomatic euphemism to attempt to calm tensions following the controversy over large industrial trawlers. In Las Palmas, once again, the balance was struck between Africa’s economic needs and Europe’s industrial appetite. But without Canaries.
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