The Government has today announced that it intends to set provisional catch limits
for UK-EU shared fish stocks for the remainder of 2021 if an
agreement with the EU is not in place by Wednesday 14
April.
Annual negotiations on fishing opportunities with the EU are yet
to conclude. Following intensive negotiations since January, they
will resume next week.
As an interim arrangement, the Government has
extended the current provisional determination
of UK fishing opportunities until 14
April 2021.
This determination will be replaced on or before 14 April with
new provisional catch limits, in the absence of agreement with
the EU, to provide industry with clarity about their fishing
opportunities until 31 December 2021.
The Government remains committed to and
believes it possible to reach a fair and balanced agreement, but
we are taking this step now to deliver greater certainty to our
industry.
Environment Secretary said:
“We are committed to cooperating with the EU
to reach an agreement. However, any agreement reached must be in
the best interests of UK fishermen and we will not accept a poor
deal.
“We have set provisional catch limits to allow
these negotiations to conclude, and we will take steps to ensure
that our fishermen have the certainty that they need – whatever
the outcome.”
Any deal reached must recognise sovereignty
over our fishing waters and respect the importance of the
sustainable management of shared fish stocks.
As an independent coastal State, the UK is
also able to set our own regulations for other measures that are
not agreed with the EU. These include special conditions and
footnotes for Total Allowable Catches (TACs), seabass management
regulations, and non-quota species regulations.
The UK will continue to cooperate with the EU
on the sustainable management of fisheries.
Notes to editors:
- To ensure that fishing could continue while annual
negotiations on fishing opportunities with the EU and other
coastal States took place, the UK Government previously set
provisional catch limits for fishers in the UK which expire on
the 31 March. These will now
be extended to 14 April.
- On 26 March 2021, the EU announced that it will be extending
its provisional catch limits which expired on 31 March for a
further 4 months.
