Ireland has joined an alliance of coastal European Union states to call for fishing rights to be protected in any deal with Britain with talks on a knife edge as leaders gather in Brussels.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin is meeting French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the issue of fishing rights, with Paris taking a hard line on the issue and insisting that coastal communities should not become a victim of any deal.
“We are concerned in terms of fisheries that our coastal communities are protected, because fisheries in key coastal communities represent the most significant industry, in some areas of Donegal, and Cork and the southeast and Wexford, and right across the seaboard,” the Taoiseach said ahead of the summit.
“We’ve joined in an alliance with quite a number of EU states on this issue and I think it’s important that those interests are protected.”
A group of eight coastal states with fishing industries that have traditionally caught their catch in British waters are pushing back against London’s position that access to its waters should be conditional on annual negotiations.
Though fishing represents just 1 per cent of the EU’s economy and 0.1 per cent of Britain’s, it is a politically potent topic that represents the economic lifeblood of coastal towns across member states.
National leaders are set to agree to “continue negotiations in the coming weeks” according to draft summit conclusions, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that Britain could pull out of the talks if he feels that insufficient progress is being made.
‘Fair competition’
Ahead of the summit, France’s Europe Minister Clement Beaune visited a northern port and announced on social media: “One single objective: to defend and protect the interests of fishermen.
“We negotiate with calmness and great firmness, we’re fighting . . . for French fishing,” Mr Beaune added.
The Taoiseach told reporters that though differences remained between the two sides on fisheries, how to ensure fair competition and how to resolve disputes, reaching a deal was clearly “in everybody’s interest”.
“That is our aim and that is our objective, it can’t be at any price obviously and I think there are still some tough negotiations to take place,” Mr Martin said.
The leaders will receive a briefing from the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier on how the negotiations have progressed, before a round table discussion of the issue. Coordination of efforts to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and a climate change target of EU carbon neutrality by 2050 are also due for debate.
EU leaders view Britain’s introduction of the internal markets bill, which would reverse aspects of the divorce settlement agreed last year, to have complicated negotiations and say that contentious aspects of the law must be removed in order for an agreement to be reached.
But Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte told reporters he remained “cautiously optimistic” that this could be resolved.
“It would be crazy for the outside world if the UK and the EU will not be able to come to an agreement,” Mr Rutte said. “I think it’s in both our interest economically and geopolitically to get to a deal.
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