The draft letter from the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries on the trade and cooperation agreement with the United Kingdom, finalised on Tuesday 2 February, regrets the 25% reduction in fishing rights for EU vessels in British waters.
The draft letter to be sent by 4 February at the latest to the relevant European Parliament committees, drafted by rapporteur François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP, France), expresses the “relief” of MEPs after an Agreement on Fisheries as an integral part of the comprehensive Agreement.
The agreement “preserves the possibility of access to the waters, resources and markets of the parties concerned”, the letter points out. However, MEPs deplore “the definitive loss of 25% of the value of historic fishing rights held by European fleets in UK waters”.
Moreover, the situation following the 5.5-year transition period, at the end of which this 25% loss will be fully effective, raises fears on the side of the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries. The European Commission is asked to “take all the necessary guarantees so that the balance obtained with the UK is not called into question at the end of this period, and in particular that this 25% reduction threshold is never exceeded and that reciprocal access remains granted”.
MEPs are also concerned about the consequences of the possibility for the UK to diverge from Union Regulations on Technical Measures for fisheries and other related Union environmental legislations. The Commission is asked to “ensure that the UK does not deviate from the EU objective of ending overfishing”.
Link to the letter: http://bit.ly/2L9wvNM (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)