FURY OVER EU FISHING DEMANDS
BORIS Johnson’s officials last night savaged the EU for presenting a shopping list of demands including open access to British fishing waters in return for a free trade deal.
The Prime Minister is said to be furious after EU ministers insisted his Government must sign up to a raft of regulations.
Seeking to intensify the pressure, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier insisted the bloc would not conclude a deal with the UK “at any price”. He added that fishing rights must be part of the deal or there “won’t be any agreement at all”.
Downing Street hit back by accusing the EU of reneging on an offer of a free trade deal based on Canada’s virtual zero-free tariff arrangement with the bloc. In a warning shot ahead of the first round of talks next Monday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We will be taking back full control of our laws and our money on January 1st next year.”
On the subject of fishing rights, he added: “The UK didn’t vote twice to take back control of its waters only to give that control up again.”
The diplomatic row erupted after the EU formally published a document setting out Mr Barnier’s mandate for the negotiations on a future trade deal.
Ministers and ambassadors from the 27 member nations approved the 46-page paper at a meeting of the EU’s General Affairs Council in Brussels.
It called for EU standards to remain a “reference point” for the UK after the Brexit transition period concludes.
And it proposed upholding “the existing reciprocal access to waters” for fishing vessels. Afterwards Mr Barnier used a news conference to pour scorn on Mr Johnson’s
request for a Canada-style free trade deal.
He demanded “robust, level playing field safeguards” to avoid “unfair competitive advantages” in social, environmental, tax and state-aid matters.
Mr Barnier said: “Let me remind you that most of the British processed fisheries products are traded, are exported, are sent to us,
to the European market. So fisheries is part of a package as regards our trade relations, which are to be discussed, and that package is one you can’t break up.
“There will be no ambiguity at all around that.
“The trade agreement will be associated with a fisheries agreement and an agreement about a level playing field, or there won’t
be any agreement at all.” He also said the UK’s proximity to the continent means a UK-EU deal “cannot be the same” as the arrangement for Canada.
But the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “It doesn’t matter what the EU puts in its mandate as we become an independent coastal state on December 31, 2020.
“That means we automatically take back control of our waters and others’ right to fish in them under the UK convention of the law of the sea. This does not have to be negotiated nor will it be.”
He added: “Neighbouring trade partners such as the US and Canada, and Australia and New Zealand have not sought to impose the onerous commitments that the EU is now seeking.
“Our position is that we want to get all of these discussions concluded as quickly as possible because we will not be extending the transition period.”
Mr Johnson’s Europe adviser David Frost will begin the wrangling with Mr Barnier in Brussels on Monday before further meetings in Belgium and London.
THE elite who run the European Union are about to discover that the people of the UK will never again surrender control of our laws or our waters. These Eurocrats who foolishly thought we might lose our nerve and decide to stay in the EU are now plotting to curtail the freedoms of post-Brexit Britain.
In the months ahead they will seek to impose a raft of outrageous conditions on a future trade deal that would mean their fishing fleets could still raid our waters.
They want to limit the freedom of UK governments to invest in our industries and our communities, and ensure we abide by rafts of regulations that are the brainchild of Brussels.
Their ludicrous calls for common rules to ensure a “level playing field” show they are in denial about what our departure means. Euro officials are terrified the remaining 27 member states will face intense competition from a confident and prosperous Britain – but that is precisely the point of Brexit.
Europe’s aversion to competition is responsible for its stagnation. The deadening impact of EU bureaucracy on local democracies and the disastrous decision to implement a single currency has held back innovation and pushed down the living standards of millions of people.
Mercifully, we are no longer a member of this stuffy and outdated club, and we have no intention of abiding by its rules.
We will never sign away sovereignty over fishing in pursuit of a deal. The EU should ditch its pseudo-imperial ambitions to control our future and instead scramble to agree a free and open trading relationship based on zero tariffs before it is too late.