The UK and Norway have reached a bilateral fisheries agreement, the first between the two nations since Brexit, providing for reciprocal access to their waters and quota trading, the Norwegian government said on Tuesday. Fishing is one of the main bones of contention between the United Kingdom and the European Union since London left the European bloc, but also between Norway, which is not a member of the European bloc, and the EU. "
I am satisfied that the agreement with the United Kingdom is finally complete,
" Norwegian Minister for Fisheries and the Sea, Bjørnar Skjæran, said in a statement. "
This is the first time that we have concluded such an agreement
." For 2021, the two countries had failed to come to an agreement.
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In particular, the agreement provides that each country can next year fish up to 30,000 tonnes of demersal fish (living near the bottom, as opposed to pelagic species) and 17,000 tonnes of herring in the other's exclusive economic zone.
It also gives British fishermen the opportunity to harvest up to 6,550 tonnes of cod around the Svalbard archipelago in the arctic waters of the Barents Sea.
These waters are at the heart of a dispute between the EU and Norway.
To take into account the UK's exit from the EU, Oslo wants to reduce - to 17,885 tonnes of cod - the quotas of European fishermen to whom Brussels has unilaterally granted catches of 24,645 tonnes.
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The conflict results from a different interpretation by the two parties of the Treaty of Paris which governs the statute of Svalbard. While it recognizes Norway's sovereignty over the archipelago, the treaty specifies that all signatory states can engage in economic activities there on an equal footing. For the EU, this provision also applies to the 200-mile economic zone, a concept that did not exist in 2020, while Norway makes a restrictive interpretation, limited to 12 miles from territorial waters. The United Kingdom, for its part, remains engaged in a standoff with the EU, in particular France, over the allocation of licenses to French fishermen in British waters. Since it has not obtained all the licenses it required, France has indicated thatshe was going to ask the European Commission to initiate litigation against the United Kingdom.
