On Monday 27 September, several MEPs called for a tougher EU response against the UK for not complying with all the provisions of the fisheries chapter of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Manuel Pizarro (S&D, Portugal) presented his draft report on the future of fisheries in the English Channel, the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU to the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries. This report will be adopted in December 2021 or January 2022 in the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries, before a vote in the Parliament’s plenary.
François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP, France), rapporteur on the fisheries chapter of the trade agreement with the UK, pointed out that in Jersey and Guernsey “we are facing major difficulties”.
Guernsey has so far issued 168 provisional fishing authorisations, and Jersey 177 (only 47 are definitive). These provisional authorisations expire on Thursday 30 September.
Mr Bellamy stated that “it is time to use all the levers in the agreement, especially on trade, to ensure that the agreement is implemented”. Nothing is yet very firm in the European response to this issue, he summarised.
“We need to strengthen the political discourse” towards the British government, said the Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries, Pierre Karleskind (Renew Europe, France). He advocated for a more local management of relations with the UK on the first issue of Channel Islands fisheries. The principle of subsidiarity must, according to Mr Karleskind, be “reactivated” to return to a “stable and balanced” situation.
Several MEPs have called for the ‘Brexit Adjustment Reserve’ to be implemented as soon as possible for the fisheries sector.
Link to the draft report by Mr Pizarro: https://bit.ly/3ufHiIw (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)