11th January 2021
Annual Fisheries Agreements for 2021:
Trilateral and bilateral negotiations have now opened between the UK and adjacent coastal states including EU, Norway and Faeroes. The aim will be to agree (if possible) total allowable catches for shared stocks and other fisheries management measures for 2021. Talks are being held remotely because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In normal circumstances access arrangements to fish in each other’s waters and quota allocations of shared stocks are part and parcel of annual fisheries agreements between coastal states. The UK, however, enters its first annual negotiations with the EU with one hand tied (and will for the next five-and-a-half years) because of the terms of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU reached on Christmas Eve. Despite this considerable constraint, the talks which begin in earnest this week nevertheless represent a significant watershed.