The EU and the UK have reached an agreement on shared fish stocks for 2022, the European Commission, announced on Wednesday 22 December, as a dispute over fishing licences continues to sour relations between London and Paris.
After tense discussions since early November, the British and Europeans have reached a compromise on the 2022 total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 65 fish and shellfish stocks in the waters they jointly manage in the Atlantic and North Sea.
The text also provides for quota exchanges and, in particular, provisions on sea bass and eel fisheries.
The agreement “covers all shared and jointly managed fisheries in EU-British waters and is based on the best available scientific advice. This is a step forward in the implementation of the post-Brexit trade treaty and brings predictability to our fishermen”, welcomed the European Commissioner for Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius.
EU fisheries ministers approved, last week, an emergency mechanism to extend the 2021 quotas for three months (January-March) as a precautionary measure to allow fishermen to continue their activities (see EUROPE 12853/5).
The figures show that, compared to 2021, the UK’s share of the TACs increases slightly. Taking anglerfish as an example, the TAC is 41,173 t (+8% compared to 2021), and the UK’s share increases from 21.22% in 2021 to 21.76%.
For cod to the west of Scotland, the TAC is 1279 t, as in 2021, but the EU share increases from 69.77 to 72.63% (i.e. 350 t for the EU in 2022, compared to 387 in 2021).
Environmental NGOs are concerned. The Oceana organisation estimated a month ago that only 43% of the 2021 quotas in shared EU/UK waters meet scientific recommendations. “Certain fish populations, like West of Scotland herring, Irish Sea whiting or Celtic Sea cod, will continue to be overexploited in 2022”, warned Vera Coelho of Oceana.
The quotas set for already vulnerable stocks “keep them on the brink”, such as for cod, which often fall victim to bycatch, said Jenni Grossmann of ClientEarth.
On the other hand, the agreement is considered balanced by the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council.
On Wednesday, the EU Council approved the agreement between the EU and the UK on fishing opportunities for 2022.
Next steps. The regulation on fishing opportunities for 2022 - including the amendment containing the final quotas - will be finalised by the EU Council’s legal and linguistic experts, after which it will be formally adopted by the EU Council and published in the EU’s Official Journal. The provisions will apply retroactively from the 1 January 2022.
The issue of licences. The French and British have been arguing for almost a year about the extent to which European fishermen need to provide evidence to obtain a licence to continue working in British waters. Paris has recently asked the Commission to initiate a legal procedure to obtain additional final licences (see EUROPE 12856/10).
UK/Norway Agreement. Meanwhile, the UK and Norway announced, on Tuesday 21 December, that they had reached a bilateral fisheries agreement, the first between the two nations since Brexit, providing for reciprocal access to their waters and quota exchanges. The UK fishing industry will have access to 30,000 tonnes of white fish stocks (cod, haddock and hake) in the North Sea. Norway will allocate 6,550 tonnes of cod around Svalbard to the UK. In total, this means that the UK can catch over 7,000 tonnes of cod in the Arctic, 1,500 tonnes more than in 2021.
Link to the EU/UK TAC 2022 agreement: https://bit.ly/3J9hUv4 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)