UK Edition
EU member states hardening demands for ‘status quo’ access to UK fishing grounds after Brexit
Fears growing that fundamental differences on shape of future EU-UK relationship could now crash the talks within months
EU member states are hardening their demands for ‘status quo’ access to UK fishing grounds after Brexit, the Telegraph can reveal, as fears grow that fundamental differences on the shape of the future EU-UK relationship could now crash the talks within months.
A new draft of the EU’s negotiation mandate presented to EU ambassadors over the weekend shows major EU fishing states looking to further tie the hands of the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier to retain their existing fishing quotas.
The new text says that Mr Barnier must “uphold” existing reciprocal access to fishing grounds, following complaints from France, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands that the previous pledge merely to “build upon” existing access was far too weak.
EU sources said that the demands on fishing could stiffen even further over the weekend, as fishing states fear that Mr Barnier will make a compromise with Britain that will see their boats able to catch significantly less fish.
EU sources from member states with large fishing interests say they have been concerned by Mr Barnier’s very careful use of language, talking only of a deal that produces “stable” quota shares, rather than maintaining “existing” shares.
Boris Johnson, who is equally under pressure from the UK fishing industry, has also chosen his words carefully, insisting British fishing grounds are “first and foremost” for UK boats but skirting around any hard guarantees.
However the looming fight over fish - British fishermen were promised “hundreds of thousands of tonnes” more quota by Tory fishing ministers after Brexit - could be overshadowed by a more fundamental disagreement over how the new EU-UK relationship will be governed.
The Telegraph understands that a meeting of UK and EU officials in London on Friday exposed a yawning divide between the two sides over the basis of the future relationship agreement.
The EU is insisting that the entire future relationship agreement - including trade, security and other agreements like fishing rights - should be “embedded in an overall governance framework” that covers “all areas” of cooperation.
EU sources say this is to create a nimble, “cross-cutting” dispute resolution mechanism that will enable the EU to hit Britain where it hurts if an independent arbitration panel finds that the UK is in breach of the Agreement.
“This is about fairness,” said a source familiar with EU thinking, “we need a mechanism where if the UK transgresses in an area where it is strong, and believes it can absorb the impact of a sanction, then the EU can take proportionate, reciprocal action in a sector that is equally important to the UK - or vice-versa.”
However the British side is understood to have been adamant that it wants only a set of separate, basic agreements - from trade to security, fish to financial services - with each one having its own separate governance mechanism and no cross-cutting punishments.
They reject EU arguments that the “size and proximity” of the UK, and the depth of necessary relationship, means that it cannot be treated like Canada or Japan which have much more distant, light-touch dispute resolution mechanisms.
British negotiators, led by David Frost, are also determined to avoid a repeat of the first phase of talks where the EU retained leverage over the process by refusing to even talk about a trade deal until the UK had settled an agreement on finances, citizens’ rights and the Irish border.
In a statement to Parliament this week Mr Johnson hinted at the new UK approach by warning that “early progress” on areas like data-sharing and equivalence in financial services regimes would be “a test of the constructive nature of the negotiating process”.
But internal discussions on the European side are clear that even if unilateral EU assessments on data-sharing and financial services are completed by the summer, a decision will not come until much later in the year, once the EU has seen how rest of the negotiation is progressing.
The gulf between the two sides has now left officials in both London and Brussels fearing that talks could break down as early as this April, the Telegraph understands.