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

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

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

EU says still far apart with Britain on fisheries, state aid in trade talks

November 9, 2020 — There has been some progress in talks on a future trade relationship between Britain and the European Union, but both sides are still far apart on fisheries and state aid for companies, the head of the European Commission said on Saturday.

Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter she agreed in a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that negotiating teams on both sides would continue to work hard on a deal next week as time is running out to reach and ratify an agreement before Britain’s transition period ends at the end of this year.

“We took stock of the negotiations with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson today. Some progress has been made, but large differences remain especially on level playing field and fisheries,” von der Leyen said.

Read the full story at Reuters

Brexit Deal in Sight as Fish Compromise Nears: Brussels Edition

November 2, 2020 — This week could be crunch time for negotiations on the EU’s future relationship with the U.K. In a sign that a compromise could be struck by the mid-November deadline, officials are close to breaking the deadlock on the access EU boats will have to U.K. fishing waters. The sides have two weeks to finalize an agreement and may pause this week to allow EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to brief member states and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Boris Johnson to give one final push. Although important differences remain — particularly over state aid and the level playing field for business — a deal on fish would remove one of the biggest obstacles.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

The Issue That Might Sink the Brexit Trade Talks: Fishing

October 29, 2020 — In the greater scheme of things, fishing is a tiny industry. Just 12,000 people in Britain fish from 6,000 vessels, contributing less than half of one percent of gross domestic product — less than the upmarket London department store Harrods, according to one analysis. The same holds true for most continental European nations.

Yet, as negotiations between Britain and the European Union on a long-term trade deal grind along toward the Dec. 31 deadline, fisheries are proving to be one of the most politically treacherous sticking points. Here’s why the issue is giving negotiators such fits.

Why are fisheries so important?

Boats from continental Europe have fished off the British coast for centuries, and those communities say they face ruin if they were to be locked out of those waters.

But in Britain, European Union membership has meant sharing British waters with fleets from France or other nations — and sometimes seeing bigger, more modern ships catching a larger proportion of the fish. In one zone off the English coast, 84 percent of the cod is allocated to France and just 9 percent to Britain, according to Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations.

The British fishing industry contends that its interests were sacrificed for more profitable sectors when the country joined the European Economic Community, a forerunner to the European Union, in 1973. Now that Britain has left the bloc, they want their fish back.

Read the full story at The New York Times

The Global Push to Share Ocean Data

October 26, 2020 — It’s often said that we know more about deep space than the deep sea. Marine scientists are working to change that. In recent years, technologies to sense, interpret and model the ocean have become more powerful, widespread and cheaper to install and use. Smart buoys bristling with sensors bob in the water and gather data on temperature, salinity, light and noise. Sensitive listening devices towed behind ships scan surrounding waters for life. And samples from good old-fashioned buckets and bottles thrown over the side of research vessels still play an important role in examining water.

As a result of all this activity, marine scientists are swimming in data. Much of it is collected by national oceanographic services or research groups scattered across the world. The quality of this data varies, and so do the ways it is gathered, stored, organised and formatted. All of which presents a problem. Given the ocean is a shared resource, and one that is growing in importance for a number of environmental, social and economic reasons, it would be better if all of these overlapping, conflicting and incompatible data streams could be organised – or at the very least, better coordinated and made more accessible.

“In the past, the gathering of marine data was quite territorial, with people collecting data within different sectors and sometimes being quite possessive,” says Clare Postlethwaite, an oceanographer who coordinates the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) in the UK. “Now there’s a big push to get data into a single place for users to find.”

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Brexit without an EU-UK fisheries agreement would bring great risk, campaigners warn

September 11, 2020 — Allowing the United Kingdom and the European Union to part ways at the end of this year without an agreement on fisheries in place post-Brexit would open the door to overfishing and pose a serious risk to many fish stocks and marine ecosystems, campaign groups have warned.

On 8 September, the E.U. and U.K. began a new round of post-Brexit trade deal negotiations, with fisheries and fishing rights again expected to take center stage as one of the main obstacles to a broader deal.

Read the full story at Seafood Source