MEP Pierre Karleskind (Renew Europe, France) said on Tuesday 4 February that fisheries is a “priority in the negotiations with the United Kingdom” on future relations.
“It shall in no case constitute an adjustment variable. A fisheries agreement must be inseparable from a trade agreement”, he said. He recalled that the French fisheries sector “depends on access to British waters” and that the professionals are “worried”.
Pierre Karleskind and Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, France) visited Port-en-Bessin, Normandy, on Tuesday, together with the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, Sibeth Ndiaye, and the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, to meet with stakeholders in the fisheries sector about the effects of Brexit.
“If we don't get a fisheries agreement with reciprocal access to waters and resources, we cannot sign a trade agreement with the UK”, Mr Karleskind and Mrs Yon-Courtin said.
The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, stressed that the agreement will have to ensure “continued reciprocal access to markets and waters with stable quotas” (see EUROPE 12417/1). Pierre Karleskind is expected to chair the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries (see EUROPE 12415/4) after a vote in committee on 19 February.
Imminent return to Guernsey for French fishers. French fishers who have been denied access to the waters of the Channel Island of Guernsey since 1st February, when Brexit came into force, should be able to return by the end of the week, Amélie de Montchalin assured on Tuesday. "We have a diplomatic agreement and a political agreement (...) Now we are in the implementation. For example, we are going to ask for international registrations from fishers who sometimes don't have them. There are small administrative steps", the Secretary of State said. The European Commission "has pre-validated a list of boats" that want to fish in Guernsey and "we have an agreement with Guernsey that they don't collect payment, that it is free of charge", she also said. On Monday in Brussels, she had alerted the relevant Commissioners to the fact that fisheries is a "key area for confidence in future negotiations" between the EU and the UK. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)