LONDON — The EU and the U.K. have reached an agreement on how to divide up fish stocks they jointly manage.
Under the Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), the EU and the U.K. must negotiate total allowable catches (TACs) in the stocks they share in the Atlantic and the North Sea, on an annual basis.
After two months of discussions, the European Council announced Wednesday it had approved a deal between the EU and the U.K. for 2022, including TACs for around 65 jointly-managed stocks and provisions for the overfishing of non-quota stocks. This is the second post-Brexit agreement on catch limits.
“Thanks to goodwill and a constructive approach on both sides, we were able to reach an agreement that provides certainty for EU fishermen and women going forward,” said Jože Podgoršek, Slovenia’s agriculture minister, whose country holds the rotatory EU presidency until January 1.
In a statement, the European Commission said the agreement “creates certainty for fishing communities in both the EU and the U.K., cements the sustainable use of marine living resources and establishes a strong basis for continued EU-U.K. cooperation in the area of fisheries.”
Environmental groups, however, warned the deal fails to protect some fish species.
“The agreed ambition expressed in the TCA was that of recovering shared fish populations and maintaining them above healthy levels,” said Vera Coelho, senior director of advocacy at the Oceana environmental group. “This is lacking in the current agreement as certain fish populations, like West of Scotland herring, Irish Sea whiting or Celtic Sea cod, will continue to be overexploited in 2022.”
The agreement is separate from the dispute between the U.K. and France over fishing licenses in the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, off the French coast.
