The informal meeting was held in Bruges on 24 and 25 March 2024 under the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Today, the participants discussed the "Future of the EU fisheries and aquaculture". The State Secretary emphasised, in her intervention, the importance of this discussion in the current situation, stating: "In the past year, the Slovenian aquaculture sector also faced a significant challenge due to floods, which affected a large part of the population and fish farmers. The sector was also affected by the surge in feed prices and other products, including energy products. In light of these challenges, our principal aim is to preserve the Slovenian fisheries sector and its sustainable tradition of obtaining food from the sea and other waters for future generations." 

According to State Secretary Knez, Slovenia considers it crucial that all solutions accepted at the EU level should be proportionate, do not bring additional administrative or financial burdens for operators and stakeholders, and take into account the specifics of smaller fisheries sectors. State Secretary noted that Slovenia supports a reflection on possible legislative changes to the regulation on the common fisheries policy and the regulation on the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund to facilitate investment in the fleet, enable stakeholders to invest in support of the energy transition and allow for greater flexibility in the use of resources. The ministerial discussion also touched on data collection in fisheries. In her intervention, the State Secretary recalled that Slovenia already fulfils all requirements, but that optimisation is necessary: "We should speak about optimising the requirements for data collection instead of increasing them. This would prevent the unnecessary duplication of work and additional administrative and financial burdens."

Good practices in fishing were presented to the participants on Sunday, including a shrimp peeling workshop, and this afternoon they will visit two rotational simulators of fishing vessels.