EU27 Draw Up Tough New Demands to Lock UK Into Joint Fisheries Deal
I’m sorry the below article is rather long. Explains a lot though…….
Daily Express Friday 23 Nov 18 by Joe Barnes, Brussels Correspondent.
QUOTE
EU countries are preparing to heap misery on Theresa May and make the Prime Minister’s controversial Brexit deal even harder to navigate through Parliament with new fishing demands.
European capitals are working on a series of side declarations as they continue to flesh out terms on how Britain’s future partnership with Brussels will be negotiated - including new plans for the deal on fisheries. The Prime Minister has been forced to deny claims she will hand over access to British territorial fishing waters in exchange for a trade deal with Brussels after the publication of the 26-page “political declaration setting out the framework for the future relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
The aspirational wish list acts as a blueprint for UK and EU negotiators to follow when working on the future trade and security relationship, which will be prepared during the 21-month transition period ending in December 2020.
But now concerned EU countries are publishing a one-off political statement which will add extra assurances over sensitive topics, and will accompany the entire British divorce package.
EU countries will demand a deal for European access to British fishing waters “well before” the end of the transition period ends.
The documents, seen by Express.co.uk, highlights a fisheries deal as a “priority” for negotiators when hammering out the future relationship and should be based on “existing reciprocal access and quota shares”.
“Such an agreement should be negotiated well before the end of the transition period”,
The draft declaration adds.
France is behind the bulked-up text on fisheries text and is designed as a signal to warn Britain against betraying promises during future trade deals.
British fishermen fear any deal struck will essentially become a version of the EU’s deeply controversial Common Fisheries Policy, which grants EU fishing vessels reciprocal access across the bloc’s waters.
The Conservative party’s 13 Scottish MP’s, last week, warned the Prime Minister that any deal that prevents Britain from becoming an “independent coastal state” would be a “betrayal of Scotland”.
The leaked document also includes the EU intentions to keep the UK “dynamically aligned” to its environmental policies and says Brussels “will demonstrate particular vigilance on the necessity to maintain ambitious level playing field conditions and to protect fishing enterprises and their own communities ”
.
The statement says “As recalled in the withdrawal agreement. A fisheries agreement is a matter of priority and should build on inter alia. Existing reciprocal access and quota shares. Such an agreement will be negotiated before the end of the transition period,
“Any decision on the extension of the transition period will take into account the fulfilment of obligations by the United Kingdom under the agreement, including its protocols”.
Michael Gove’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs issued a statement warning the language contained in the document has been explicitly rejected and there is no UK commitment to maintaining access on an existing basis.
But Brussels negotiators will be tied to the terms set out in the declarations and will restrict any potential extension of the transition period under any British attempts to deviate from them.
UNQUOTE
Well, now we know why the declaration referred to the above as the “Fishing Agreement” instead of “Our Territorial Waters” Above is one reason why the backstop will be invoked - demands for our fishing. We cannot leave without their say-so and they won’t let us leave until we give up our fishing rights with another treaty with no end date.
Theresa May won’t be worried. She will already be out and sitting in front of the fire in her slippers. Is it any wonder that the EU have zero respect for Britain and British people when they see gullible Theresa May as weak and anything resembling a leader.