The European Fisheries Alliance (EUFA) said on 28 February that the UK’s negotiating mandate on future relations with the EU “does not meet the EU’s objectives” on fisheries.
In a press release, the association notes that the negotiation positions are “wide apart as the talks begin” (see other news). EUFA says it is “committed to a balanced and mutually beneficial agreement that ensures both the future sustainability of fish stocks and the economic prosperity of EU and UK fleets” (see EUROPE 12414/9).
According to the organisation, any future fisheries agreement must “preserve mutual access to waters, fishing opportunities and markets on a long-term basis”.
However, the current British negotiating mandate challenges this balance. “Annual negotiations on the sharing keys for more than 100 shared fish stocks, as proposed in the mandate, is not the way forward”, says EUFA.
It is convinced that a “more pragmatic” approach to the management of fishing activities “will eventually prevail over short-term political considerations”. “Michel Barnier and the EU’s Member States share this approach”, says the European Fisheries Alliance.
For Gerard van Balsfoort, president of EUFA, the British mandate “is no surprise”. It is, in his view, more of a political statement than a “workable vision of future fisheries management”. Only cooperation and shared management of fisheries resources will ultimately protect the sustainability of fishing activities and the prosperity of fishing fleets, he concluded.
To prepare his report on future fisheries negotiations with the UK, François Xavier Bellamy (EPP, France) met French fishermen from the port of Saint-Quay-Portrieux on Monday 2 March.
EUFA press release: http://bit.ly/2I8qtb1 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)