Britain prepares for new fish war with EU

London and Brussels at loggerheads over fishery policies as two extra boats join Royal Navy patrols

BRITAIN is strengthening its fishing patrol force in anticipation of a battle with Brussels over restricting access to UK waters after Brexit.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has hired two extra ships to bolster the Royal Navy Fishery Protection Squadron, which already has four River-class offshore patrol vessels and a helicopter. More than 20 other patrol boats are believed to have been put on standby

The plans, first reported by Politico, will spark fears that negotiations over fishing rights with the EU could descend into new cod war or scallop war clashes.

Boris Johnson is to demand the EU accepts a Norway-style fishing deal in forthcoming negotiations, The Daily Telegraph can disclose, teeing up a battle with Brussels that risks scuttling trade talks. Brussels will resist British efforts to replace the current system with one that allows Britain to restrict EU boats from fishing in UK waters, ensures annual talks on fishing stocks and lets British fisherman catch more fish.

While no final decision has been taken, The Telegraph understands Britain sees Norway as the best basis for an agreement. Norway’s deal also allows quotas to be exchanged with the EU.

The UK has already left the London Convention, which granted EU fishermen rights in UK waters. The Fisheries Bill, which came before MPS for scrutiny last month, will require foreign boats to have licences.

But the European Commission wants the status quo preserved, with EU boats continuing their untrammelled access to UK waters. Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief negotiator, warned on Monday that an agreement on fisheries by July 1 was “inextricably linked” to the success of the UK-EU negotiations over a free-trade agreement by the end of the year.

A Norway-style agreement would end the EU system for allocating total allowed catches of fish, agreed in the Seventies and Eighties, which set shares of the catch based on historical data that no longer reflect the amount of fish in British waters. EU fishermen take nearly five times as much fish from UK waters than their British counterparts.

“The UK will move to a fairer and more scientific method for determining future shares, which better reflects where fish live,” a government spokesman said.

The British fishing industry welcomed a Norwegian model, which could be more sustainable, it said, than the EU’S Common Fisheries Policy. A senior UK government source suggested the UK and Norway could hold bilateral talks, dividing their share of the stock before pursuing separate negotiations with the EU.

Alternately the annual Eu-norway talks could become tripartite and involve the UK, the source said.

Last month The Telegraph reported that France wanted a 25-year long agreement on fishing shares with the UK. A compromise, one source suggested, would be to phase in a new deal over a period of years.