Fishing, the fishing ground of Brexit discord

Fishing does not reach 0.1% of UK GDP.

It is also not as essential a sector as others for the European Union and yet it has become one of the great points of contention in the negotiations to achieve a trade agreement for the post-Brexit era.

The key to its specific weight is not strictly productive or strategic.

It is actually a "romantic symbol" of national sovereignty, as defined by a high-ranking diplomat in Brussels, and also a sector in which London has an ace up its sleeve.

"It is the only point where the British start with an advantageous position: because we want something from them", in the words of a German MEP who follows the discussions.

“That's why they leave it for last.

To torture [French President Emmanuel] Macron, and end up giving in at some other point. "

With the pulse between the negotiating teams on both sides of the English Channel almost at saturation point, and with a possible agreement in sight in the coming days, what is at stake is access to British waters, a copious fishing ground that represents about 15% of total European fishing and from which an annual average of 1,285 million tonnes of fish came out between 2012 and 2016, according to an extensive study commissioned by the Fisheries Commission of the European Parliament in 2019, on the of Brexit.

The EU 27 took the largest share (57%) compared to British fishermen (43%).

And this is what Boris Johnson, with his nationalist rhetoric, has been promising for years to recover.

When Brexit is consumed on January 1, at the end of the agreed transitional period, the United Kingdom will abandon the Common Fisheries Policy, which defines the access of European ships to the so-called Exclusive Economic Zone of this country, which extends 200 miles nautical (about 370 kilometers) from the British coast.

The EU aspired, at the beginning of the negotiation, to maintain an agreement similar to the quota system in force until now.

On the contrary, London sought to regain control and implement a regime similar to the Norwegian one, which negotiates the catches of the EU fleets in its waters from year to year.

The difference is that with Norway the fishing of half a dozen species is agreed;

in British seas it would be done for almost a hundred.

The cake to be distributed is about 650 million euros in the form of mackerel, herring, sole, Norway lobster and hake (the most caught fish, in this order, by the European fleet).

What has emerged from the discussion in recent days: Michel Barnier, the chief negotiator on the European side, would have proposed to cut (that is, return to the United Kingdom) between 15% and 18% the fishing rights of the Twenty-seven in waters British, according to RTE, the Irish public television, a figure that would have been branded by London as "laughable".

Meanwhile, David Frost, who is leading the dialogue for the UK, is trying to retain up to 80% of the catch in its waters.

And, as is often the case with negotiations in Europe, it is likely that everything will end somewhere in the middle: perhaps with an interim pact acceptable to both parties and a gradual horizon of reducing the European presence.

"Boris Johnson does not need an economic victory, but to tell his voters that there will be fewer European boats in British waters and more fish for fishermen in the UK and Scotland," said Pierre Karleskind, chairman of the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee, and MEP of La República en Marcha, the party of the French president.

Fishing, he continues, would be one of "the few tangible things" that a politician can offer his citizens.

And this argument is valid for London, and also for Paris, the capital of the most affected country.

French resistance

France accounts for about 30% of the value generated by the European fleet in British waters, according to another Brexit report drawn up in 2017 for the European Parliament, followed by the Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark.

In global terms, it does not represent a large percentage of the total French sector, but in some ports in the departments of North and Brittany, that coastal area that almost embraces the neighboring island, could take 50% of the jobs ahead , says Karleskind.

Macron has a little over a year left to go to the polls and the ghost of new yellow vests formed by tanned sea lions weighs heavily.

“Would you want the French fishermen marching towards Paris?

They are a group of tough guys, "acknowledges a diplomat familiar with the negotiations.

France has become one of London's toughest nuts to crack.

The Gallic position is maintained that it is preferable that there is no agreement rather than a bad agreement.

And he repeats that it is a global commercial negotiation, of which fishing is only a minimal inseparable part of the whole.

In October, when Johnson threatened Brussels to leave the table, Macron retorted that the idea that the deal stumbles over fishing is "a UK tactical argument."

There are other key issues, such as the access of the British to the European energy market, now interconnected, and another juicy piece of the cake.

“Access to the single energy market has an economic value for the British of between € 750 million and € 2.5 billion.

It would be a bad deal, ”Macron said.

In fact, a bad trade deal would also be disastrous for London: the EU represents the destination of two-thirds of its fish exports, and France is its main customer.

This trade could face tariffs of up to 24%, according to the report from the European Parliament.

The UK would also lose the right to fish in European waters, a minor problem, but amounting to € 87 million.

And above all, it would risk Belgium's dreaded reaction: it has one of the smallest fleets in the EU, but it is the most dependent on British waters, from where it obtains up to 50% of its catches.

And in the event of a brutal break, he could invoke a treaty of 1666, by which King Charles II of England thanked the city of Bruges, then Spanish territory, for the refuge provided during his flight from Oliver Cromwell's regime.

Recovered the throne, Carlos II gave the Flemish town the "right of eternal access" of 50 fishing boats to English waters.

The treaty, invoked several times in history, was put on the table by the Belgian ambassador to the EU in a discussion about Brexit.

In the past, British lawyers advised their Government not to litigate on this treaty, according to the newspaper

, because they ran the risk of losing.