The official was anxious to know the level of militancy among fishermen as the 31 October deadline for a no-deal Brexit approached.
It has become a totemic issue. For Brexiteers it is drenched in the symbolism of taking back control, but the economic impact of Brexit for coastal communities on both sides will be more than symbolic, not least in Ireland. So Brussels has raised the stakes: if the UK wants a free trade deal, it will be linked to what access EU vessels get to both UK waters and the fish that live in them.
Such claims are now tempered by a growing realisation that British and European fishing communities will be locked in a mutual dependence which will survive long after Brexit. That got rid of the high seas approach, but both European and British fleets argued that since they had fished in each others waters since medieval times they had a fair claim to continue to do so.
However, migrating fish don't recognise political borders. Different species might spend different stages of their life cycles in different waters, with spawning grounds located in one EEZ and the point at which they’re caught when mature in another. In 2016, nine normally rival industry bodies formed the EU Fisheries Alliance , while eight member states formed the so-called "group of eight" countries most affected .
After the UK departed, there would be a transition period until the end of 2020 , during which the future trade agreement - including fish - would be sorted out. However, fish would not be part of that arrangement. If they were, then the UK would have been able to sell their fish to the single market tariff-free, but with no reciprocal deal for European fleets to maintain access to British waters.Michel Barnier tried to help her keep 13 Scottish Conservative MPs on board by pledging that both sides would commit to getting an agreement by July 2020.
"Within the context of the overall economic partnership," the Declaration stated, "the Parties should establish a new fisheries agreement on… access to waters and [fishing] quota shares." In other words, if the UK failed to agree to a fisheries deal as part of an overall trade relationship, the backstop would kick in and the UK might have to stay in it."If [the EU] had closed its mind from the outset to the UK position on fisheries," said a spokesman at the time, "that would put it in breach of its duty of good faith under the agreement, and we can refer this to independent arbitration.
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