On Tuesday 13 April, the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries deplored the lack of progress in implementing the ‘fisheries’ section of the EU/UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Several MEPs regretted in particular the unilateral British measures concerning the Dogger Bank, or the delays in negotiations on total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2021 and the establishment of the ‘Specialised Committee on Fisheries’, despite the fact that it is provided for in the EU/UK agreement (see EUROPE 12681/8).
Quotas 2021. On 22 March, EU Ministers adopted a decision to extend the provisional 2021 quotas (January to end of March) for stocks managed jointly by the EU and the UK until the end of July (see EUROPE 12684/1).
The Commission representative explained that “during the last 2 weeks, we have made significant progress towards reaching an agreement on 90% of the total allowable catches (TACs)”. The issues that remain to be resolved are the catch levels for species that are not subject to TACs, or the catch of sea bass. “We don't have a complete agreement, maybe we need to intervene at the political level”, said the Commission representative. He hopes to reach a full agreement “within the next few weeks”.
If there is no agreement by 15 April on the final quotas for 2021, the British will set their own provisional quotas, the Commission said.
Unilateral measures. Peter van Dalen (EPP, Netherlands), Francisco José Millán Mon (EPP, Spain) and Bert-Jan Ruissen (ECR, Netherlands) criticised the UK’s desire to impose unilateral measures (trawling ban) in the Dogger Bank area. It is a large sandbank in a shallow area of the North Sea, about 100 km off the coast of the UK and 125-150 km off the coast of Denmark.
The Commission representative explained that the parties have the right to take unilateral measures, but with conditions. The United Kingdom has notified of certain unilateral measures, in particular with regard to the Dogger Bank protected area. The EU has responded by requesting consultations with the UK to find a common solution, but the UK has not yet responded to this request. “We remain very vigilant” on this issue of unilateral measures, the Commission promised.
Mr van Dalen, François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP, France) and Pierre Karleskind (Renew Europe, France) regretted the blockages in negotiations on species not subject to quotas. Mr Bellamy deplored the fact that the British are asking for a species ceiling to be set for these fish, even though they are not subject to TACs.
The Commission has indicated that the licences for certain EU vessels fishing in Jersey and Guernsey have been extended until the end of June pending agreement on a longer period. Data on the fishing history of these vessels must be provided.
On the other licences (access for EU vessels), the majority of the fishing fleet was able to access UK territorial waters, according to the Commission representative.
On the establishment of the ‘Specialised Committee on Fisheries’ foreseen in the EU/UK agreement, the Commission indicated that it would prefer to focus initially on the consultations on the 2021 quotas, before launching the work to set up this body.
The Commission will also present a ‘state of play’ on the EU/UK bilateral consultations on the 2021 fishing quotas on Wednesday 14 April at the meeting of the Committee of the Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)