EU fishing bonanza – UK issues licences to 1,700 EU boats to fish in UK waters
And 117 of these can now sail up to 6 miles from the UK coast to take British fish
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2021
Facts4EU.Org reveals the latest shocking post-Brexit figures which will leave UK fishermen reeling
Brexit was supposed to have delivered control of the UK’s territorial waters back to the United Kingdom. Yesterday, official figures released by the British Government show just how shallow this promise has turned out to be, thanks to the demands of the EU during the exit negotiations.
Since 01 January 2021, almost 1,700 licences have been issued to EU27 fishing vessels to enter British waters (within 200 nautical miles). 117 of these are able to sail up to six miles from the United Kingdom’s shores to ply their trade, with more expected soon.
Of the 1,700 EU27 vessels, some are the notorious ‘EU factory ships’ which are alleged to cause major damage to fishing stocks and to the marine environment by ‘hoovering up’ everything from the sea bed.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
1,681 EU27 fishing vessels can now enter UK waters
- FRANCE 44%
- Ireland 22%
- Netherlands 11%
- Denmark 7%
- Spain 5%
- Belgium 4%
- Germany 3%
- Portugal 3%
- Sweden 1%
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org - click to enlarge
British waters, still open to the EU27
From the “A La Garde de Dieu” to the “Zuidersee” (from Belgium), Facts4EU.Org has analysed the details of the 1,681 EU27 registered fishing vessels which now have the right to enter the UK’s ‘Exclusive Economic Zone’ and UK territorial waters, thanks to the agreements the Government was required to sign up to by the EU Commission.
A UK Government spokesperson said yesterday:
“The government has this year issued a large number of licences to EU vessels seeking to fish in our exclusive economic zone (12-200 nautical mile zone) and our territorial sea (6-12 nautical mile zone). Our approach has been reasonable and fully in line with our commitments in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).”
© Crown
The French are still complaining, despite all of this
One of the many complaints made by President Macron and his government since Brexit has been that the UK is deliberately ‘holding up’ the issuing of licences to French fishing boats to fish in British waters.
In reality, Facts4EU.Org’s analysis shows that 738 licences have been issued to French vessels in the past nine months. This is 44% of the entire EU27 total.
Only 35 small vessels from the entire EU27 fleet have been refused licences – and this is only in relation to the 6-12 nautical miles of territorial waters off the British coast. The reason is that these vessels were unable to prove they had been fishing that close to the UK’s coastline while the UK was still a member of the EU. If they provide the appropriate paperwork, they too will be granted licences.
Observations
Rule Britannia?
For centuries Great Britain has had a worldwide reputation as a maritime nation. One of the benefits of Brexit was supposed to have been the return of control of our own waters to its rightful place. It is deeply regrettable that this has not happened, thanks to the onerous demands from the EU and in particular the French.
Brexit is already proving successful on many levels but there are two very notable exceptions. One is the effective partitioning of the UK by cutting off Northern Ireland from full UK sovereignty and placing it firmly under the yoke of the EU and its legal framework, and the other is what can only be described as the sell-out of the British fishing community.
With the United Kingdom once again demonstrating its global reach, and with its new aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth II asserting the right under international law to sail through the South China Sea, we suggest that Lord Frost might wish to put the plight of British fishermen in the seas around our own coast somewhat further up his list of priorities.
If the Government were to do this, we suspect it might go down well with voters across the country, not only in our embattled coastal communities.
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[ Sources: UK Dept for the Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) | UK Marine Management Organisation ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 29 Sep 2021
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