Saving Seafood

EU-UK trade deal hangs in the balance with four weeks to go

December 3, 2020 — The European Union and Britain talked into late on Thursday to try to secure a Brexit trade deal, with an EU official saying an agreement was closer than ever but a UK government source warning chances for a breakthrough were receding.

Since Britain left the EU in January, negotiators have struggled to overcome their differences, with each side urging the other to make concessions to unlock a trade deal before London’s transition period out of the bloc ends on Dec. 31.

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is due to update 27 national envoys to the bloc’s hub Brussels on Friday on the latest in the talks. A senior British government source said the prospect of a breakthrough in the next few days was receding.

A member of Barnier’s team said earlier on Thursday that significant gaps remained on the three most contentious issues and that the final outcome was still uncertain.

“The long and the short story is that talks are continuing in London. Significant divergences remain,” Stefaan de Rynck told a seminar in the Belgian capital. “Both sides are working hard to overcome them but the outcome is uncertain.”

Read the full story at Reuters

Layers of regulations to protect European seas ‘not working,’ audit finds

December 2, 2020 — Europe is failing to protect its oceans, despite having policies in place to safeguard its marine environment, according to a report published by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on Nov. 26.

The ECA, an independent institution within the European Union (EU), looked at marine protection efforts between 2018 and 2020 to see if existing policies within the EU framework were addressing key pressures on marine biodiversity and habitats. What the report ultimately found was that the EU had not taken sufficient action to restore its ailing seas, or to keep fishing at sustainable levels, especially in the Mediterranean.

“It’s pretty grim,” a member of the audit team told Mongabay in an interview. “Europe does have a framework in place, but what is there isn’t working.”

There is an intricate web of rules, laws and directives to manage the EU’s marine environment, including the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), designed to regulate fishing fleets and conserve fish stocks; the Birds and Habitats Directives (BHDs), which aim to protect threatened species and habitats through a network of protected areas; and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) that provides an overarching marine policy meant to integrate fishing and environmental regulations. While these policies appear adequate, they’re not being put into practice, according to the report.

“It all looks great on paper,” the auditor said. “It all looks very sensible, but the reality is that when you try to apply [them] there are gaps.”

In some instances, policies even seem to be at odds with each other. For example, many EU member states have established marine protected areas (MPAs) in their territorial waters as per the conservation commitments set out in the MSFD and the BHDs, which allows them to impose fishing restrictions on vessels owned and operated by their own citizens. However, the CFP gives EU member states the right to fish in other member states’ waters, even within other countries’ MPAs. To ban other EU members from fishing within these MPAs, nations would need to engage in multilateral discussions under the CFP, a process that could take many years.

Read the full story at Mongabay

U.K. Sees Brexit Deal Within Days If EU Moves on Fisheries

December 1, 2020 — Boris Johnson’s officials believe a Brexit trade deal could be reached within days if both sides continue working in “good faith” to resolve what the U.K. sees as the last big obstacle in the talks — fishing rights.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called on the European Union to recognize that regaining control over British waters is a question of sovereignty for the U.K. He drew a positive picture of the state of negotiations and said he believed a deal on fish “ought” to be achievable during what could be the final week of talks.

“I think it’s important that the EU understand the point of principle,” Raab told the Sophy Ridge on Sunday show on Sky News. “If they show the pragmatism, the goodwill and the good faith that in fairness I think has surrounded the last leg of the talks, and certainly we’ve shown in our flexibility, I think there’s a deal to be done.”

If negotiations fail, millions of businesses and consumers will face higher costs, with tariffs on goods as well as disruption to critical supply chains. The Brexit transition period ends on Dec. 31, when the U.K. is scheduled to leave the EU’s single market and customs regime.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

EU agrees to eliminate tariffs on US lobster

December 1, 2020 — The European Union parliament has officially passed a mini trade deal with the U.S. that will see all tariffs on U.S. lobsters dropped for the next five years.

In a vote with 638 affirmative, 45 against, and 11 abstentions, the parliament confirmed that all U.S. lobster imports to the E.U. will no longer be subject to an 8 percent tariff, retroactive to 1 August. The tariffs will be removed for the next five years, and the E.U. will work to make the removal permanent.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Brexit goes down to the wire: EU and UK say big differences remain

November 30, 2020 — The European Union and Britain said on Friday there were still substantial differences over a Brexit trade deal as the EU chief negotiator prepared to travel to London in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a tumultuous finale to the five-year Brexit crisis.

With just five weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31, both sides are calling on the other to compromise on the three main issues of contention – fishing, state aid and how to resolve any future disputes.

The two sides will shortly resume face-to-face negotiations after they had to be suspended last week when one of EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier’s team tested positive for COVID-19.

“Clearly there are substantial and important differences still to be bridged but we’re getting on with it,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters.

Read the full story at Reuters

EU must accept reality to move fisheries talks forward, says PM

November 27, 2020 — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday the European Union needed to accept the reality that Britain must control access to its waters if the two were to make progress in Brexit talks on fisheries.

“Our position on fish hasn’t changed. We’ll only be able to make progress if the EU accepts the reality that we must be able to control access to our waters and it’s very important at this stage to emphasise that,” he told parliament.

Read the full story at Reuters

UK fisheries bill becomes law, revoking automatic rights for EU vessels

November 24, 2020 — The United Kingdom’s Fisheries Bill has received Royal Assent after 10 months in Parliament, thereby making it the Fisheries Act, the country’s government has confirmed.

Announcing that the Fisheries Act 2020 had passed into law – representing the United Kingdom’s first major domestic fisheries legislation in nearly 40 years – the government said it would now have control over who fishes in its waters through a new foreign vessel licensing regime, and that the current automatic rights for European Union vessels to fish in U.K. waters have ended.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Biotech firm close to scaling up fishmeal alternative made from industrial emissions

November 23, 2020 — Having secured EUR 2.5 million (USD 3 million) from EU Horizon 2020 – European Innovation Council (EIC) accelerator funding – young U.K.-based carbon recycling biotechnology company Deep Branch is scaling up the development of new proteins for the aqua- and agri-feed sectors, produced from carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from industrial emissions.

Deep Branch’s new “Proton” single-cell protein is created through a fermentation process that uses microbes to convert CO2 into protein. The result is a low carbon feed ingredient with a nutritional profile comparable to fishmeal, which can be produced year-round, and at a price that’s on par with the traditional but finite marine ingredient market, but sporting a lower carbon footprint.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

EU says Brexit deal still ‘metres from the finish line’

November 20, 2020 — The European Union and Britain have made better progress towards a trade deal in the last few days but there is still a lot of work to do for an agreement to be in place by the end-year deadline, the bloc’s chief executive said on Friday.

Diplomats briefed earlier by the EU’s executive, which is negotiating with Britain on behalf of the 27 member states, said Brussels and London remained at odds over fishing rights, fair competition guarantees and ways to solve future disputes.

However, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sounded a more optimistic note on the last-ditch talks at a news conference, pointing to progress on the question of ensuring a level playing field for state aid.

“After difficult weeks with very, very slow progress, now we’ve seen in the last days better progress, more movement on important files. This is good,” she said.

Read the full story at Reuters

Failure to enforce discard ban threatens the future of EU fish stocks, report warns

November 18, 2020 — Despite many fishing quotas being significantly increased to facilitate the implementation of the E.U.’s Landing Obligation (LO), also known as the “discard ban,” there has been no decrease in the volume of fish being discarded and no enforcement of the rules, which in turn is providing a platform for overfishing throughout the region and undermining science-based fisheries management decisions, according to a new report.

Compiled by fisheries scientist and FishFix CEO Lisa Borges, and partly funded by the non-governmental organization Our Fish, “The Unintended Impact Of The European Discard Ban,”​ finds that total allowable catches (TACs) across E.U. fisheries have increased by an average of 36 percent above pre-landing obligation levels annually since 2015, and that this increase climbed even further recently – reaching 50 percent in 2019-2020, including a 60 percent rise for demersal fish species.

Read the full story at Seafood Source