In the lead up to the United Kingdom’s complete break from the EU at the end of 2020, its maritime authorities, such as the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the Marine Management Organisation, are increasing their defenses for protecting UK waters from fishing by EU and member state ships.^[1] These defenses include adding more inspection and patrol vessels to its fleet and requesting that non-UK boats obtain fishing licenses and abide by UK environmental regulations in order to fish in the territory.

The Guardian reported that negotiations between the UK and EU are nowhere near being settled:^[2] “Britain has so far refused to offer Brussels any promises on access to UK waters, where more than 700,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish are caught by EU trawlers each year, prompting the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, to threaten to block a trade agreement on financial services [in January] in retaliation.”

David McAllister, a German Christian Democrat MEP, who is leading the European parliament on EU-UK talks, had this to say about the conflict:^[3]

The issue of free access to waters is inseparable from the issue of free trade and access of UK fisheries products to the EU market. So the negotiations of the UK on fisheries cannot be disconnected and will have a direct link with the negotiations on trade in goods. It’s that simple. If the UK grants us access to territorial waters, to fish, then on the other hand the UK will have access to export fisheries to the single market.