Signed and sealed
PM hails post-brexit future as ‘friends and equals’ – but France demands fishing rights for 25 years
BORIS JOHNSON insisted the UK and the EU would forge a relationship as “friends and sovereign equals” after Brexit as he signed the document agreeing the terms of Britain’s departure.
The Prime Minister and the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission all signed the Withdrawal Agreement a week before Britain leaves the EU, in what Mr Johnson described as “a fantastic moment”.
He added: “This signature heralds a new chapter in our nation’s history.”
But in a sign of the battles still to be fought, The Daily Telegraph has learnt that France has insisted in closed-door European Commission meetings that Britain must grant EU countries access to UK fishing waters for 25 years after Brexit if it wants a free-trade agreement with Brussels.
The EU has warned that successfully concluding a fishing deal with the UK – ideally by July 1 – is a prerequisite for any future trade deal, which Mr Johnson wants done by the end of this year.
Britain is understood to be willing to accept only a one-year agreement on quotas and fishing rights, setting up the first big showdown of negotiations that will start in March.
Yesterday Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, and Charles Michel, the European Council president, signed the document in the same room in Brussels in which Britain’s permanent representative to the EU handed over Theresa May’s letter triggering Article 50 almost three years ago. The document was then sent by Eurostar to London, where Mr Johnson added his signature in Downing Street,
meaning the only remaining formality before Britain’s Jan 31 departure is a vote in the European Parliament next week to ratify the “divorce” agreement.
Mr Johnson said: “The signing of the Withdrawal Agreement is a fantastic moment, which finally delivers the result of the 2016 referendum and brings to an end far too many years of argument and division.
“We can now move forward as one country – with a government focused upon delivering better public services, greater opportunity and unleashing the potential of every corner of our brilliant United Kingdom – while building a strong new relationship with the EU as friends and sovereign equals.”
Mr Johnson’s characterisation of Britain’s future relationship with the EU will be severely tested during the coming trade talks. The French demand for 25-year access to British fishing waters was made in meetings between EC officials and diplomats from the other 27 EU member states.
London and Brussels are now on a collision course over the future of the industry which represents only a small fraction of the UK and EU economies, but is politically explosive on both sides of the Channel.
British fishermen have repeatedly been promised “hundreds of thousands of tons” of extra fish by ministers, in an effort to chalk up a concrete win from Brexit and correct historical inequities in quota allocation that date back to the UK’S accession to the EU.
Shutting French fishermen out of British waters would cause their revenue to drop by half and wages to fall by 15 per cent, according to French fishermen’s group CNPMEM.
The UK will leave the Common Fisheries Policy after Brexit, but Mr Johnson has been careful not to make specific promises, saying only that the UK will “take back control” of its waters after Brexit.
Although EU fishermen take nearly five times more fish from UK waters than UK fishermen, nearly three quarters of the fish caught by British fleets is sold in the EU, handing the Commission significant leverage in the negotiation.
Separately, the European Commission published documents setting out post-brexit customs checks in the Irish Sea, contradicting Mr Johnson’s insistence that no checks will be necessary. One graphic claims goods leaving Liverpool would be checked on arrival or en
‘The bottom line is we need a close relationship – as close as possible. We don’t have a choice, we’re too intertwined’
route to Belfast by UK officers applying “relevant EU rules... in addition, EU representatives have the right to be present during checks, request information, and direct UK to carry out checks”.
EU negotiators meeting in Brussels also agreed that the UK would rapidly face punitive sanctions, including “cross-retaliation” if the UK breached trade commitments after Brexit, according to internal documents seen by The Telegraph.
A senior EU official said the tough dispute resolution mechanism was designed to give both sides shared confidence if and when the UK “diverged” from the EU’S regulatory orbit.
“The bottom line is we need a close relationship; as close as possible. We don’t have a choice, we’re too intertwined. But for it to work, we need credible ground rules that work and that we can trust, and the knowledge that this won’t breed resentment and suspicion – on either side,” the source added.