Fishing deal helps smooth way for UK-EU summit agreement
European fishing vessels will be given a further 12 years of access to British waters as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s “reset” with Brussels.
A late-night deal was struck with the European Union ahead of Monday’s major summit with Brussels chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa.
There will be no change to current access to fish for coastal communities and no reduction in the British quota or increase in the quota the EU is allowed to catch, it is understood.
But the deal means European vessels will enjoy the same post-Brexit access they have had until 2038, 12 years after the current arrangement expires.
Further details of the deal are expected to be announced at the first UK-EU summit on Monday, at which Sir Keir will meet European Commission president Mrs von der Leyen and European Council president Mr Costa.
Other issues under discussion included defence and security, with a potential agreement allowing British firms access to a 150 billion euro (£125 billion) EU defence fund.
Forward
Deals on allowing British travellers to use e-gates at European airports, cutting red tape on food exports, and setting up a youth mobility scheme with the EU, were also thought to be on the table.
Sir Keir said: “It’s time to look forward – to move on from the stale old political fights and to find common sense, practical solutions that improve the lives of British people.
“Secure borders. Cheaper bills. More jobs.
“We will close a deal in the national interest.”
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds described the deal as a “solid eight” out of 10.
“I’m not the kind of man to get hyperbolic about these things, but look, this is a good deal for borders, for bills, for security in the UK and for jobs,” he told GB News.
Officials said talks on the deal with the EU went down to the wire on Sunday night, ahead of the landmark London summit.
Not all issues will be agreed at the talks, with discussions with Brussels to continue and summits planned every year.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the fishing agreement, saying: “Twelve years access to British waters is three times longer than the Government wanted.
“We’re becoming a rule-taker from Brussels once again.”
‘Back door’
Mrs Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had already described the deal as a “surrender” before knowing the details.
Youth mobility could prove a major sticking point for the Opposition, and Mrs Badenoch said she feared it would involve a return to free movement “by the back door”.
The Tories have also set out a series of “red lines” on fishing rights, including ensuring exclusive access to Britain’s territorial sea and resisting “a multi-year agreement which only benefits France”.
The Liberal Democrats meanwhile have called for a new UK-EU customs union.
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We should be catching Europe’s fish for them since we don’t eat it ourselves. Unfortunately without single market and customs union it’d just sit rotting on a dock waiting for someone with a clipboard to give it the nod. That’s why we have to let them catch it themselves.
MoJ hacked…the names Dominic Raab, Robert Buckland and Brandon Lewis will come up…negligence in public office…reward knighthoods etc results treacherous chaos…
The ‘Green’ light to twelve more years of tearing up the seabed around our coasts…
I am reading this is a decent deal all things considered. Of course farage, and tory bot wrecked the UK with brexit will dislike it.
Starmer seems to be trickling us back into the common market. The British public voted us out …… remember??
Indeed. The UK voted to turn itself into an international laughing stock, and there it should stay. Until I saw the positives that brexit delivered, I was against it, but a vote is a vote and if the UK is allowed to proceed, its a sure sign that democracy is long dead.
The question only asked about EU membership. Plenty of non-EU countries participate in the common market. Don’t forget that in 1975 a supermajority voted to remain in the common market. You’ll need another vote to overturn that.
Is it £500,000,000 we have already given to France to prevent immigrants crossing to the UK and they are still coming here in thousands!! Now we are giving them our fish!! What’s wrong with our fishermen catching the fish and selling it to them? This government have not got a bloody clue. France must think we are complete idiots.
If only there was a way to keep it….oh yeah, farage happened, then Johnson.
Go figure.
I think the brexiteers that dumped the UK in the brown stuff are the idiots.
The money wasn’t given to prevent crossings, only to increase policing. It’s only possible to prevent crossings through policies like the Dublin deterrent which Johnson took us out of because you asked him to. There were no small boat crossings in 2016 as you well know.
France KNOW we’re complete idiots.
And now theyre rightfully exploiting the British gullibility and passing as many immigrants as possible across to Britain.
The majority voted for this taking back control, and hopefully the arrangement will be kept.
I thought Farrage would have welcomed the deal, after all he’s made a fortune selling red herrings .
He made a fortune doing nothing in the EU fishing commission’s when he was an MEP (didn’t attend most of them). Then he trashed the system that the UK needed to sell catches.
Yet people still hang on his every word. Same people, kippers and Tory, will be waiting to be told what to be angry about.
Today does nothing to repair the real damage done by Nigel Farage and the Conservatives with Brexit. It doesn’t change anything. Starmer just stoking his ego. We’ve spend 9 years scrambling in the dust begging those around the world for minor trade deals, trade I might add, that don’t even touch the sides compared to what we used to have when we had access to the 500 million EU marketplace. And according to some economists, the UK lost about 4.5% of its GDP when we left the EU. And who has suffered the most economically and democratically by leaving the… Read more »
Don’t give a damn about the fishing industry. There isn’t one in Wales. Why should I put those Brexiters in north England and Scotland above the interests of Welsh farmers and tourists (including me) who are only going to benefit from this deal?