Flag ships post-Brexit - a Spanish perspective.

Galician boats of British pavilion will be able to continue fishing after "Brexit"

London says it will maintain rights and license conditions to operate in its waters


They are Galicians, but they sail through the waters waving the flag of the Union Jack. They disguise their ships (80 in particular) with British veils to fish in the fishing grounds of Gran Sol and the North Atlantic, where the European Union has limited entry to the Spanish fleet, hungry for quotas. In Galicia they are known shipowners in the ports of Vigo, O Morrazo, Burela, Celeiro or A Coruña, but for their Anglo-Saxon competitors they are pirates who, instead of raiding and looting in the old way, have adopted the strange habit of paying licenses. and taxes to the authorities of the United Kingdom to be able to fish with Galician staff in their territorial waters. And the British fishermen want them out of their seas. With the Brexit they have seen a golden opportunity to expel them and put an end to quota-hopping , as they have called this supposed pillage of their fishing resources. Despite the enormous pressure they have exerted on the Government of Theresa May, the negotiating team of the prime minister is not about the task of taking up arms against the twenty-seven to satisfy historical accountability of her fleet. Not even if the United Kingdom leaves the EU on March 29, 2019 without an amicable divorce agreement.


THE AGREEMENT:

Legal security to continue working. According to the latest working documents of Downing Street, the British Government would be willing to offer legal security to the Galician ships of the British flag to continue fishing after Brexit . "There will be no changes in the rights and responsibilities of vessels registered in the United Kingdom that fish in British waters. They will continue to abide by the respective legislation and the license conditions, including the linked economic criteria ", explained in those documents, without clarifying whether they will continue to issue new permits in the future. 

FIRST QUESTIONS:

What quotas will there be? Can they disembark in Galicia? Ships will be exposed to the arbitrary decision of the British fishing authorities. "We will communicate to the interested parties what their corresponding allocation will be," the document suggests. On the disembarkation in the Galician ports, in the absence of an agreement on Brexit , the EU will close the doors: "There will be no automatic access for British flag vessels to Community or third-country waters (...) British flag will no longer have automatic right to land fish in any EU port" And it will also be vice versa. So the Galician ships that work in the Falklands will have to look for alternative fishing grounds if the EU and the United Kingdom do not extend a truce. 

MARKETING:

The same standards. The United Kingdom expects a left hand from Brussels regarding the commercialisation of fishery products and the mutual access of vessels to ports on both sides of the English Channel, upon notification. London is willing, if it were not possible to close a global agreement, to submit to the same rules of EU control and labeling: "The standards will remain the same, including those that regulate quality, size, weight, packaging, presentation, labeling and minimum sizes of commercialisation ", they assure.

THE EXPORT:

Same certificates. British and EU exporters must request a catch certificate detailing all the information required by the EU today: name of the species, date, method of capture and conservation ... The document should be sent to the competent Port Health Authority to be checked at least three days before the estimated date of arrival at port. Despite the anticipation of the change of rules, the British presage a great impact on supply chains: "Trade is vital, including for aquaculture and the processing sector, so it is important that our new fishing regime allows the industry commercial with the current and new markets". The EU has made it clear that the exit will have a cost. There will be no exchanges if mutual access to the waters is not guaranteed.

Translated by Google from LavozdeGalicia