For MEPs, the future fisheries agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom should “maintain reciprocal access to waters and resources” by defining common, coherent and stable principles and rules, “enabling open access of fishing and aquaculture products to markets without causing economic or social tensions through unbalanced competition” (see EUROPE 12437/6, 12424/1).
This well-known position, defended by the EU but contested by the UK, is set out in the draft opinion by François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP, France) on the recommendations for negotiations on a new partnership with the UK. This opinion is addressed to the European Parliament Committees on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and International Trade (INTA), which will draw up a report on the future EU/UK partnership.
Mr Bellamy's draft report should, according to a provisional timetable, be adopted by Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries (PECH) at the end of April, with a view to a plenary vote in June on the partnership with the UK.
The draft reaffirms that no comprehensive agreement can be concluded between the EU and the UK if it does not include a “complete, balanced and long-term fisheries agreement, allowing the continuation under optimal conditions of access to waters, resources and markets of the parties concerned”.
The text also calls for: - a stable and constant distribution of fishing rights; - long-term management of resources based on compliance with the principles of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
In an interview with the newspaper Ouest France, Mr Bellamy believes that it is in the interest of both parties to reach an agreement that comes as close as possible to the current situation. The future of fisheries “will not be separated from future trade relations as a whole. It won't be an adjustment variable”, the MEP defended.
Link to the draft opinion: http://bit.ly/2U2xno6 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)