UK and Norway sign historic fisheries agreement
The UK and Norway have agreed a Fisheries Framework Agreement of annual negotiations on the issues of access to waters and quotas. It is the first agreement as an independent coastal state in 40 years.
The Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has described the deal as a ‘significant step forward’ as the UK prepares to leave the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy at the end of December.
From January 1, the UK will be able to decide ‘who can access its waters and on what terms, in the best interest of its marine environment and its seafood and fishing sectors’, DEFRA added.
The agreement demonstrates ‘the shared will of the UK and Norway to cooperate as independent coastal states. It also seeks ‘effective and sustainable’ fisheries management.
The treaty incorporates the same principles that the UK is currently seeking with the EU – a framework agreement which reflects the UK’s and Norway’s rights under international law,’ DEFRA explained.
Coastal state cooperation
Environment Secretary George Eustice said the agreement was a testament to their commitment to acting as a cooperative independent coastal state, “seeking to ensure a sustainable and prosperous future for the whole of the UK fishing industry”.
Norwegian Fisheries and Seafood Minister Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen said the agreement facilitated a “good and solid fisheries cooperation”. Management of shared fish stocks “is at its best when the coastal states agree on how this should happen”.
DEFRA said British fishing communities will benefit from the fisheries agreement… ‘and is taking back control of its natural resources while seeking to restore more of its fish stock to healthy levels’.
Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said the agreement was “the established pattern of how coastal states with shared stocks work with each other to ensure that fish stocks are harvested responsibly and sustainably.
“Annual agreements provide the necessary flexibility to address changes in the stocks and science, whilst the framework agreement ensures continuity and a framework of cooperation,” he added.
In 2018, the UK fishing fleet landed £32m worth of fish from Norwegian waters.
About 80% of the North Sea falls within the EEZs of Norway and the UK with the EU only accounting for one-fifth after the UK’s departure from the EU.
