EU leaders stressed on Sunday 25 November in Brussels the importance of retaining fishing quotas in British waters in future agreements (see EUROPE 12145).
In their declaration annexed to the Agreement on future economic and trade relations between the EU and the United Kingdom, the 27 EU leaders specify that a fisheries agreement with the United Kingdom should be concluded “well before the end of the transition period” after Brexit, which should last until the end of 2020. The withdrawal agreement contains a mid-2020 deadline for finalising the 'fisheries agreement'.
"A fisheries agreement is a matter of priority, and should build on, inter alia, existing reciprocal access and quota shares. Such an agreement should be negotiated well before the end of the transition period,” it is written in this added text at the insistence of countries such as France or the Netherlands, which regretted that this matter was not settled in the divorce agreement.
Several EU countries insist that future access for British fishery products to the European market should remain conditional on European access to British territorial waters. “For us, access to British waters is a priority”, says France.
European fishermen depend, to varying degrees, on the cod, monkfish and other whitefish they catch in British waters.
The divorce agreement approved on Sunday provides that, during the transition period, European fishermen will retain access to British territorial waters and the British will remain subject to European fishing quotas. Deadline for completing this agreement is mid-2020.
Sovereign control. British Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to reassure the country's fishermen, who have voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU. The agreement “will free us from the CFP for good and forever”, said Ms May, after the European Council. “The United Kingdom will be an independent coastal state once again, in full sovereign control of our waters, able to decide for ourselves who we allow to fish in them, with that access not tied to any other aspect of our economic partnership”, said Ms May. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)