EU fishing plunges into hot waters

brussels — EU fishing fleets are increasingly anxious about their future access to teeming British waters as Britain prepares to trigger the two-year countdown to its exit from the bloc.

Fleets from nine EU countries including France, Germany and Spain have banded together in a newly-created European Fisheries Alliance, formerly launched at the European Parliament last week, warning of steep losses if divorce proceedings turn bitter.

Alain Vidalies, France’s secretary of state for fisheries, stressed in Paris last week “the importance of preserving fairness between European and British fleets” post-Brexit.

European fleets obtain onethird of their catch in the exclusive economic zone around the British Isles, and loss of access to those waters could cut their profits in half in the short term, the fishing alliance says.

In the long term, EU fleets could lose a combined 500 to 600 vessels if they were excluded from British waters, representing 15 per cent of the total, and up to 3,000 fleet jobs.

Industry officials are pressing for negotiations on Britain’s postBrexit future to include continued access to British waters.

“If you don’t want to pay 30 per cent tariffs you will have to negotiate. Negotiations should be tied to access to the market,” Ivan Lopez Van der Veen, who represents the Spanish fishing association Pesquera Ancora, said at the EU Parliament last week.

Non-British EU vessels currently land almost eight times more fish and shellfish by weight from British waters than UK boats, or almost five times more by value, said Ian Napier, senior policy advisor at the NAFC Marine Centre, based on Scotlands’ Shetland Islands.

From 2011 to 2015, European fleets caught 700,000 tonnes of fish and seafood in British waters, valued at about £530 million, the NAFC said in a report published in January.