The EU’s chief negotiator meets with David Frost, his UK counterpart, for dinner tonight before a full day’s talks on fishing rights after the end of the transition period on Tuesday. Britain wants annual negotiations over fishing opportunities and a Norway-style agreement with Brussels, which is supported by British fishermen, who voted in large numbers for Brexit. A senior source close to the talks said that UK fishermen’s share would increase after the end of transition on January 1.
“Loss of access to fishing grounds, to markets for fish or the return of overfishing will ultimately harm all of us. Michel Barnier knows this,” said Gerard van Balsfoort, Chairman of the European Fisheries Alliance.
“Upsetting this balance will have serious consequences for all fishermen, European but also British,” he said, “that is why maintaining mutual access to fishing grounds and the current shares of fishing rights is in everybody’s interest.”
European fishermen are dependent on UK waters but Britain sells most of the fish it catches in Europe.
The EU’s opening negotiating position was that fishing rights and shares should be agreed under existing conditions, as if the UK had not left the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, in return for the trade deal.
The UK wants a deal with annual negotiations and opportunities based on zonal attachment, a method to calculate where fish are. The Common Fisheries Policy is based on historic catch patterns agreed decades ago, which does not reflect that many fish have moved into UK waters because of climate change.
“The current system may be imperfect but it is the result of a difficult compromise between all involved countries, fishermen and the need for sustainable fish stocks,” Mr van Balsfoort told The Telegraph. “As almost all catches in the north East Atlantic are taken under sustainable conditions the fisheries management is working well,” he said. British negotiators insist the new agreement will be better for the environment.
Despite its small share of the EU and UK economies, fishing, along with the level playing field guarantees and the future role of the European Court of Justice, is a major obstacles to agreeing the free trade agreement before the October deadline set by the EU to allow time for it to be ratified.
Sources are confident the deal can be done if this week’s negotiations bring compromise from either side, which could unlock further concessions.
Failure to reach a deal on the zero tariff, zero quota agreement by the end of transition will mean the UK and EU trading on less lucrative WTO terms, which would involve tariffs. Mr Barnier has signalled a willingness to compromise on fishing, describing the EU’s position as “maximalist”. He insists that talks cannot be annual because there are more than 100 fishing species that would need to be negotiated over.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, recently suggested that a compromise could be found by agreeing multi-annual deals on certain fish but not others.
Mr Barnier has conceded that zonal attachment could be used to calculate fishing opportunities but wants it to be combined with other factors such as the historic fishing rights and the economic impact on coastal communities. EU sources said they were baffled by the lack of willingness to compromise shown by the UK team so far and described the past weeks of talks as going over old ground.
"Barnier is negotiating in good faith but he has to deal with an EU27 who still think unachievable outcomes on fish and level playing field are possible," a Number 10 source said over the weekend. Sources suggested that after months of deadlock both sides are keen to demonstrate progress in this week’s round of negotiations.
The UK and EU could announce a breakthrough on police and judicial cooperation where agreement is understood to be close at the close of the round, which will be followed by further negotiations in Brussels.
Full story courtesy of the Daily Telegraph.
