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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson today welcomed the trade agreement with the European Union as a new starting point for relations with the Community. He did so in a conversation with the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, Reuters reported.
“I just spoke to @eucopresident (European Council President) Charles Michel. I welcomed the importance of the UK-EU deal as a new starting point for our relations, between equal sovereigns,” Johnson wrote on Twitter .
We look forward to formal ratification of the agreement and joint work on shared priorities, such as addressing climate change, he added.
Earlier today, the permanent representatives of the 27 EU member states gave the green light for the provisional implementation of the agreement, which is subject to the approval of the European Parliament in early 2021, from January 1 to February 28, reported AFP and TASS.
Who are most dissatisfied: British fishermen
British fishermen said they felt betrayed by the trade deal between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Union, DPA reported.
“I am angry, disappointed and betrayed,” Andrew Locker, director of the National Federation of Fisheries Organizations, told the BBC today.
“Boris Johnson promised us the rights to all the fish that swim in our exclusive economic zone, and we got a share of that,” he said.
Johnson had promised that no fisherman would be worse off with his deal, Locker recalled, but now “we’re definitely worse off.”
“When we were in the EU, we traded fish with the EU. We exchanged things we didn’t use for fish they didn’t use, and that allowed us to come up with an annual fishing plan,” Locker added.
“We have now received a part of what was promised to us with Brexit. In fact, we are really going to fight this year,” he stressed.
Britain’s Brexit Secretary of State Michael Gove disagreed, telling the BBC that Britain would be in a much stronger position than the EU.
Under the EU Common Fisheries Policy, British fishermen would only have access to 50% of the fish in British waters. Now that number will rise to 67% by 2026, Gove explained.
Fishing plays a small role in the British economy, but has played an important role in the painful Brexit negotiations, recalls DPA.
London finally made concessions to sign a deal on Thursday, the agency added.
