Red herring?

Nicola Sturgeon is busy generating yet another grievance against Westminster over Brexit. She demands to be part of the Brexit team responsible for the economic future and integrity of the UK yet her life- Much has been written heralding the UK’S apparent “triumphal” withdrawal from the London Fisheries Convention, “taking back control” of our fishing industry.

However, there should be caution over the true impact of this and all may not be as it seems. The 1964 London Convention was signed by 13 European countries in order to establish and define a fisheries regime for their coastal waters. The Convention also established rights for certain vessels to fish in the 6-12 nautical miles region of the coastal states of the 13 countries, if they had “habitually fished” in that same region between 1 January 1953 and 31 December 1962. The countries that signed were: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

There is, however, some debate as to whether the London Convention provisions still apply, and a number of senior legal experts noted in evidence to the Lords EU Energy and Environment Sub-committee in 2016 that the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) superseded the London Convention. This means that historic fishing rights derive from EU law, and not from the Convention.

The key challenge is not to be distracted by this, and the focus should be on what will replace the Common Fisheries