Britain to reinstate 200-mile fishing boundary post-brexit

By Gordon Rayner

and Christopher Hope

BRITAIN will take back control of all fishing rights within 200 miles of the coast after Brexit, according to a Government briefing paper seen by The Daily Telegraph.

The UK will no longer be bound by Europe’s Common Fisheries Policy when it leaves the EU, meaning it will revert to UN rules on fishing, which provide for the 200-mile zone, compared with just 12 miles of protected waters under EU policy.

However, Admiral Lord West of Spithead, the former head of the Royal Navy, has warned that Britain will become a “laughing stock” if it does not have sufficient patrol ships to enforce the 200-mile zone.

The issue of British territorial fishing waters will be a key battleground in the Brexit negotiations, with trawlermen around the country demanding nothing less than exclusive rights to the 200-mile zone (or the mid-point to other countries), as set out in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Until now the Government has said the extent of the zone will be part of the Brexit negotiations, but an “information note” from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs sent to UK MEPS states that the UN convention will apply.

The note also states for the first time that the UK will leave the Common Fisheries Policy, which gives vessels from the EU access to the UK’S 12-200 mile zone.

The UK is also pulling out of the 1964 London Fisheries Convention, which pre-dates the EU and allowed vessels from France, Ireland, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands certain rights to fish in the 6-12 mile zone.

Mike Hookem MEP, Ukip’s fisheries spokesman, said the notice of withdrawal from the CFP was “brilliant” news but warned the Government against “bartering away” any of the 200-mile zone in exchange for other concessions in the Brexit negotiations.

In the House of Lords, Admiral Lord West said more warships would have to be built to enforce the 200-mile zone, adding: “We will be made a laughing stock if we apply rules but cannot enforce them.”

There have been few tangible signs so far that anything has changed as a result of Britain’s decision last year to leave the EU. Since we remain a member until 2019 and the terms of our departure are yet to be negotiated, this is to be expected. But it is important to show that the vote to reassert our national independence has beneficial consequences, not least to counter suggestions that leaving will be an irredeemably painful process.

To that end, Michael Gove’s announcement that the UK has begun the process of leaving the London Fisheries Convention is to be warmly welcomed. There was much tut-tutting in Brussels about the move, with officials pointing out that the 1964 agreement had been superseded by the Common Fisheries Policy.

But it is the symbolism that matters here. It is a concrete indication that the UK will once again decide the terms of access to its coastal waters. Moreover, once we leave the EU, Britain will be able under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention to extend control to 200 miles, or to the median line between Britain and France or Britain and Ireland.

These are precisely the sorts of decisions that the majority who voted for Brexit thought the referendum was about. Along with control of borders, farming and the ability to strike our own trade deals. It is what being an independent country entails. The EU’S chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said Mr Gove’s announcement had changed nothing and access to UK waters was still a matter for negotiation. But membership of the EU has been a disaster for the British fishing industry. The least that Brexit can deliver is to return control of our own seas.