The first few plenary sessions of the negotiations for a UK/EU fisheries agreement for 2021 have provided a glimpse into the UK’s future relationship with the EU. The primary task in the annual negotiations is to set total allowable catches for shared stocks. As this is the first set of annual fisheries negotiations in which the UK is acting as an independent party, both sides recognise that more is at stake than just the arrangements for 2021, important as they are.
The National Federation of Fishermans Organisations describes some of the key underlying issues including the UK position on regulatory autonomy and divergence as well as leverage of the different parties in the negotiations. They note that outcome of these talks will provide an indication on whether the UK has broken free of the CFP (despite continuity on access and minimal change on quota shares) and intends to forge its own path ahead; or whether the UK remains as a satellite within the CFP orbit.