In a keynote address delivered in Ireland this week to the Institute of International and European Affairs, EU lead negotiator Michel Barnier stated that since the start of negotiations, the UK has not shown any willingness to seek compromises on fisheries.
He stated that without a long-term, fair and sustainable solution on fisheries, there will simply be no new economic partnership with the UK.
‘Contrary to media reports this week, the UK government’s position has not evolved in past months,’ he said.
‘No new legal texts have been tabled by UK negotiators. Where the EU has shown openness to possible solutions, the UK has shunned our offers.’
Michel Barnier commented that the UK government’s position would lock out Ireland’s fishermen and women from waters they fished long before Ireland or the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973.
‘And of course, the fishermen and women of many other EU countries,’ he added. ‘That is just not acceptable.’
He said that the European Union fully understands and respects that the UK will become an independent coastal state, outside the Common Fisheries Policy.
‘But we will not accept that the work and the livelihoods of these men and women be used as a bargaining chip in these negotiations,’ he said.
‘Any solution must ensure a balance, between further developing the activities of British fishermen and women, safeguarding the activities and livelihoods of European fishermen and women, and preserving natural resources.’
