Fish can get pretty political. A deal on fishing waters was one of the last things to be sorted out during the original Brexit negotiations, and may prove to be the most contentious aspect of the “reset” agreement struck this week.
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“We always get somewhat concerned when fisheries becomes political,” says Kenn Skau Fischer, head of the industry body representing Danish fishermen.
EU boats will be allowed to fish in British waters for an additional 12 years, until at least mid-2038, under the terms of the new deal agreed between the UK and European Union. The reset smooths some of the rougher edges left after Britain’s exit five years ago.
A shorter-term deal negotiated during Britain’s departure, maintaining fishing access for EU vessels, was due to expire next year. At that point an annual haggling over access and quotas would have begun.
EU fishermen were “positively surprised” when they heard the details of the new arrangement, Skau Fischer says. Nearly half of the 550 Danish vessels his organisation represents catch fish in UK waters. “We like to know we have stability, we have been concerned about what would happen,” he says.
In the early stages of recent negotiations a four-year extension of EU access to fish in British waters was on the table, according to one EU official briefed on the talks.
There was a suggestion to link fisheries directly to a similar time-limited deal on energy supply, or an agreement to remove border checks on agri-food products, two things the UK negotiators were keen on.
Ultimately the fisheries issue was kept separate, with an offer to extend EU boats’ access to British waters for 10 years later being pushed to 12 years. The French government made a big fuss about getting decent terms on fishing rights. “France played hard ball on fish,” the EU official said.
The EU side were very happy with the result, particularly Ireland and other states with fishing industries. “12 years was really good,” the official said.
Reflecting on the deal, both sides can feel they got and they gave on different fronts. The UK will in effect be allowed back into the EU’s single market when it comes to electricity supply. The European Commission, the EU’s executive, which led the negotiations, was not thrilled about this initially.
“It’s the definition of cherry picking,” the official said, a reference to the EU’s previous absolute red line, that the UK could not be allowed to enjoy the benefits of union membership from outside the bloc. “Back in 2020 that wouldn’t have happened.”
The fact Ursula von der Leyen‘s commission was flexible here signals a significant shift from a stiffer approach during the early Brexit years.
“There was an acceptance that both sides had to gain from this, in order to have a sustainable relationship,” the EU official said.
Politically UK prime minister Keir Starmer was going to be under much more pressure to sell the deal back home. Predictably, the Labour leader faced criticism from right-wing Brexiteers, who accused him of selling out UK fishermen and “surrendering” to the EU.
One of the big winners was Northern Ireland. A veterinary deal will remove a lot of the checks on agricultural, food and animal products sold from the UK to the EU, and from Britain to Northern Ireland.
The finer details still have to be worked out, but it will certainly be beneficial to British producers and businesses, who had been buried by red tape when selling into the EU. In the talks UK negotiators stressed that such a deal would also benefit EU agri-producers selling into Britain.
The reset deal does not restore many freedoms that were lost after Brexit, says Gavin Quinney, who moved from London to Bordeaux to open a French vineyard in 1999.
Extra customs charges and paperwork has made selling to the UK harder, but still manageable for bigger suppliers. “It sort of wiped out the little guy,” he says.
The “emotional impact” of Britain cutting itself off from the rest of Europe was much worse than any of the annoying bureaucratic hurdles thrown up in the aftermath, he says.
Future British generations will hopefully reverse the decision, Quinney says, as he believes younger people won’t want to be “trapped” on an island. “It was such a regressive step that eventually it will be put right,” he says.
Ireland’s EU commissioner Michael McGrath described the deal as a “very positive development” that had followed some “difficult” years.
“We are now nine years on from the Brexit vote and the tortuous negotiations for many years following that,” he told The Irish Times. “There is much more work to be done on the detail of some of what was set out.” Commission officials and their UK counterparts will get going on all that now.
