Date Published: 17/12/2020
ARCHIVED - Spain accepts reduction in 2021 fishing quotas as Brexit negotiations continue
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Uncertainty over many quotas as fishing rights threaten to sink any Brexit deal
Agreement has been reached among EU member states for 2021 fishing quotas in the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean waters, with Spain finally accepting a 5 per cent reduction in Southern hake catches and a 7.5 per cent cut in its quota for Mediterranean waters.
Understandably, the Spanish delegation at the negotiation table was reluctant to accept the cuts initially proposed, which were of 12.8 per cent for the Southern hake, 40 per cent for sole and 15 per cent for trawling in the Mediterranean (as part of the plan for the recovery of the Western Mediterranean which involves a reduction in quotas on species which have been over-fished in the past). After 21 hours of talks, the longest session in recent years, revised proposals were finally agreed upon, with the cut on sole fishing quotas eventually being set at 20 per cent.
Luis Planas, the Minister for Agriculture, Fishing and Food, describes the deal as a good one for the Spanish fleet, adding that the negotiations were made particularly difficult this year by the fact that the EU and the UK have still not reached any trade deal to come into operation after Brexit becomes a reality on 1st January.
119 of the 150 quotas decided concern species such as hake, megrim (a flatfish) and monkfish, which are currently managed jointly by the UK and the EU, and as a result no distribution of quotas has yet been set. The temporary solution offered by the European Commission consists of a 3-month period in which EU fleets may catch these species in the Bay of Biscay and Sole Bank.
Meanwhile, the issue of fishing rights continues to be one of the main obstacles to a Brexit deal being reached, and the EC president, Ursula con der Leyen, suggesting on Wednesday that fish could sink the on-going negotiations. Speaking to the European parliament, Mrs von der Leyen said a deal is “so close but yet so far away”, warning that the disagreements over future arrangements for European fishing fleets in UK waters could yet render the nine months of negotiations useless.
The EC president maintains that “we do not question the UK sovereignty on its own waters, but we ask for predictability and stability for our fishermen and our fisherwomen” and sounds a note of pessimism as she adds: “In all honesty, it sometimes feels that we will not be able to resolve this question.”
This leads to a climate of great uncertainty for fishermen, of course, and in the meantime the European Commission’s contingency plans are to be ratified and implemented. These plans are designed to allow British and EU boats to continue fishing in “disputed” waters until the end of 2021 if there is still no agreement between the two sides.