The EU Council of Ministers is expected to adopt a decision “soon” authorising the European Commission to negotiate a new bilateral fisheries agreement with Norway.
This new agreement, which would replace the 1980 agreement, aims to set the framework for the management of shared fish stocks and access to waters.
In view of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, Norway has indicated to the Commission that it wishes to replace the current fisheries agreement with the EU.
The negotiating directives, as seen by EUROPE, state that the Commission will: – “preserve and/or extend” EU fisheries opportunities; – provide for the possibility of agreeing on “temporary annual access for the first 3 months of the year, should the parties fail to agree on annual fisheries opportunities in good time”; – preserve existing reciprocal access conditions and stable quota shares; – include arrangements for quota transfers and exchanges, as well as for setting annual or multiannual quotas or fishing effort limitations; and – include detailed rules for the issue of fisheries authorisations and provisions guaranteeing equal treatment.
Also trilateral negotiations. The bilateral EU/Norway negotiations will have to take into account the results of the trilateral negotiations (EU-UK-Norway) conducted separately, covering stocks in the waters of the three parties.
The Commission is invited to take into account other agreements with Norway: – fisheries in the Skagerrak and Kattegat for Danish, Swedish and Norwegian vessels; – EU-Norway fisheries agreement (the "Porto Agreement"); and – neighbourhood agreement covering Swedish fisheries in Norwegian waters in the North Sea.
The agreement should be concluded “in due time to ensure that it replaces the current agreement by 2023”, according to the negotiating directives.
Link to EU-Norway fisheries relations: http://bit.ly/3t9GPGI (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)