From Membership to Partnership The EU and Its Relations with the UK After Brexit: The Fisheries Dimension

Abstract

Fishing in European waters has been a contentious issue since the sixteenth century and was a key factor in the development of the international law of the sea itself. At the time the UK joined the EU and shared its waters with Member State vessels it also lost access to its traditional fishing grounds off Iceland. The Common Fisheries Policy developed a centralized approached based around historic fleet size rather than productivity of Member States’ waters. Controls were centred around technical measures, reduction in capacity and quota. These worked: the collapse of fish stocks was halted and started to recover a little. However many stocks are still potentially illegally allocated beyond scientific levels, and fishing continues unmanaged in the EU’s suite of offshore marine protected areas. The management institutions need greater transparency and stronger adherence to the law. There is scope to build a future relationship between the EU and the UK: the UK and some of its overseas territories need the EU market, many stocks are shared, and the parties will need to agree on scientific approaches. However, It is likely that the UK is due a greater allocation of stocks than the current system. As we approach the endgame of the Brexit negotiations it is important that both sides reflect that fishing represents less that 0.1% of their economies and over-politicization of a small sector will not help either party in the context of the larger negotiations. The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which the UK helped to create, has started to rebuild stocks and that upward trajectory needs to continue; it will only do so through collaboration. Brexit, Fisheries, Competence, Environment