The Brief – Europe’s diplomatic crisis over bottom fishing

European fisheries are at the heart of a diplomatic crisis brewing between the EU and the UK, their first trade spat since the UK left the European Union in February 2020. 

Since the start of 2024, London decided to provide more protection for its marine protected areas. First, at the end of January, it banned sand eel fishing in part of the Dogger Bank, an English zone in the North Sea, to protect this fish which feeds a large number of seabirds.

The problem? British ships were never fishing for sand eels in the North Sea and Denmark accounted for 90% of the fishing there.

On 21 March, it was the turn of bottom fishing. The UK banned this practice in 13 of its marine protected areas, apparently heeding environmental NGOs’ accusations that it is destroying marine ecosystems.

Bottom fishing in those areas is mainly carried out by European trawlers – 94% of fishing time, according to a recent study by the Oceana Association.

European fleets have been quick to cry ‘discrimination’.

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) signed between the EU and the UK after Brexit, which defines the access of European fishermen to British waters, specifies that both parties can take measures to preserve ecosystems. 

But these measures must be ‘proportionate’ and ‘non-discriminatory’, i.e. they must not affect one party more than the other. On the surface, one might say the UK has done nothing wrong as it just wants the same ban to apply to everyone. But on the other hand, the measure does affect some more than others.

The European Commission is now caught in a delicate situation.  

While it insists that it wants to defend the European fishing sector and do everything it can to safeguard the EU’s interests, a conflict with the UK on this issue would counter its desire to ban bottom fishing in its own marine protected areas (MPAs).

This ambition was announced in 2023 in the ‘EU action plan to protect and restore marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries’.

For NGOs, the fact that the UK is more aligned with the EU’s ambitions than the bloc’s member states is a particularly humiliating feature of the spat. 

On 16 April, the Commission triggered the dispute settlement procedure in the trade agreement for the first time, aiming to find common ground on sand eel fishing.

At the time, Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius stated that “measures are already in place to protect this important species” and pointed out that the UK’s measures must be “proportionate”.

If nothing is done within 30 days – by mid-May – an arbitration tribunal could be set up to rule on the compatibility of the UK’s measures with the TCA. 

In the meantime, the pressure on the Commission will grow.

This week, Euractiv learned that France had formed a coalition of member states to lobby the Commission to impose sanctions against the UK. 

While ‘dialogue’ is currently the preferred option, a Commission spokesman assured us that the EU executive is ‘committed to defending the rights of [its] fishermen” and is ready “to use the tools under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement”.

Either way, the diplomatic battle has only just begun and is set to last until the TCA agreement is renewed in 2026.

**Dear readers, the next edition of the Brief will be out on 2 May.

The Roundup

The European Commission initiated investigations on Tuesday to evaluate whether Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, might have violated the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The European Union should expand its budget and consider linking all member state payments to structural reforms, EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Monday.

European affairs ministers and their counterparts from EU candidate countries on Tuesday started informal talks on how to strengthen the rule of law both within the bloc and in countries seeking to join it.

The European Commission announced on Tuesday the winners of its first auction to allocate subsidies for hydrogen production, with most of the €720 million awarded going to projects in the Iberian peninsula.

Austria’s agriculture and economy ministers have urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to postpone the implementation of the new EU anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR), scheduled for January 2025, according to a letter seen by Euractiv.

The spread of H5NI, otherwise known as bird flu, in cattle and mammals in the United States has raised concerns among those working in disease control, but the European Union says they are well prepared.

European bridges over maritime harbours are not likely to collapse if they are hit by seagoing vessels, according to several large European port authorities who Euractiv contacted following the March collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the US city of Baltimore.

Credit rating agency Moody’s is ready to look into the potential credit score implications of the European Investment Bank’s expected expansion into a broader range of defence and military assets, Euractiv understands.

For transport-related policy news, check out this week’s edition of the Transport Brief.

Look out for…

• Commissioner Johannes Hahn delivers keynote speech at conference ‘Europe: The opportunity for global investors’ in United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
• Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visits Lebanon with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Alice Taylor]