Significant concession to allow European boats access to British waters is branded ‘a shameful surrender’
Deal for EU access to UK fishing waters negotiated after Brexit is due to expire
13 May 2025
Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to cave in to the European Union and agree a deal which guarantees European fishing boats access to British waters for four years.
In a significant concession ahead of a UK-EU summit, the Prime Minister hopes the compromise will break the deadlock with Brussels as he tries to secure his much-vaunted Brexit reset.
Lord Frost, the former Brexit negotiator has described the move as “a shameful surrender of fishing communities’ rights”.
A deal over fishing rights at his meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission and Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, in London next week would allow British arms manufacturers to sell billions of pounds of weapons to cross-channel allies.
It would also cut red tape on food and drink exports to the bloc as Sir Keir attempts to ease trade barriers with Brussels.
European member states have long demanded that Britain surrenders fishing rights in a multiple-year deal as the price for any improvements to past Brexit deals.
So-called “scallop wars” broke out in 2018 and again in 2020 with skirmishes between French and English fishing boats in the English Channel.
Tensions erupted over the fact that British scallopers were allowed to fish all year round, but the French were not permitted to fish between May 15 and Oct 1.
France has been insisting that the rest of the Brexit deal is contingent on Sir Keir signing over long-term access to British waters.
Wider negotiations have become bogged down over access to the UK’s coastal waters in the last-minute dash to finalise a deal ahead of the summit on Monday.
‘No final agreement’
EU capitals had been pushing to secure fishing rights for “as long as possible”, a diplomatic source told The Telegraph.
A second source said a landing zone had emerged that would grant European vessels access to British waters for at least four years.
British officials did not dispute the claims being made in Brussels.
“No final agreement has been made. We are not providing a running commentary on our discussions with the EU, these are ongoing and cover a wide range of issues,” a government spokesman said.
“We have been clear that we will always act in the national interest to secure the best outcomes for the UK.”
Mike Cohen, the chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said: “Clearly the EU values fishing highly enough to negotiate hard for it, and clearly the UK does not feel the same.”
Sources in Brussels acknowledged that there would be difficulties over fishing rights, an issue which is considered totemic for Brexiteers.
Signed off by PM
“We all expected the fish thing to become contentious right around now, as we near the end phase,” an EU diplomat said.
“Four years doesn’t seem to be in the realm of the impossible.”
Sources in Brussels expect that the fishing concessions will have to be personally signed off by Sir Keir, given the political nature of the issue.
The Labour Government had hoped to negotiate fishing quotas on an annual basis when it opened talks with Brussels over the Brexit reset.
But EU negotiators soon dug in hard to secure long-term access, with some suggesting that a decade-long deal would provide sufficient stability to European coastal communities.
The long-term deal could also hamper any future UK effort to help the country’s smaller near-shore fishing boats, or rest overfished areas, Mr Cohen said.
“Having the ability to do a deal on an annual basis actually gives us something to bargain with,” the head of the fishing trade association added.
“We would be giving away our ability to gain anything in the future.”
In the post-Brexit EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) concluded by Boris Johnson at the end of 2020, European fishermen were guaranteed access to British waters for six years, until June 2026.
After that, the EU would have had to hold annual negotiations to maintain that level of access.
‘Shameful surrender’
Lord Frost, the former Brexit negotiator behind the TCA, said: “Boris and I had to agree a longer transition than we really wanted on fisheries. But next year it ends and we get full control of our fishing grounds and the right to set quotas.
“It sounds as if Labour are about to give this away for nothing in return. It’s a shameful surrender of fishing communities’ rights.”
The current offer would see those fishing quotas, which reduced the amount European fishermen could catch in British waters down to 75 per cent of pre-Brexit levels, remain for a further four years.
Under the current deal on offer from Brussels, an animal health deal, known as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS), would be time-limited in line with the fisheries agreement.
A potential youth mobility deal making it easier for young Europeans to work and study in Britain remains on the table.
At the summit on May 19, the UK and EU are expected to conclude three agreements.
A “Common Understanding” document will provide a roadmap on how to resolve the outstanding issues surrounding fisheries, energy trading and migration.
A second statement will provide a “geopolitical preamble” to show both the UK and Brussels are aligned on issues like support for Ukraine.
Finally, a new security and defence partnership will be agreed, which the Telegraph last week reported could see British troops join EU-led military deployments.
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