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Boris Johnson will hold new Brexit talks today after the latest attempt to break the stalemate in fisheries failed.
The prime minister is expected to warn the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, that failure to accept Britain’s right to control its own fishing grounds will dampen hopes of a trade deal.
Johnson yesterday urged EU leaders to “make sense” by abandoning demands that he said “no sensible government” could accept.
During a visit to Bolton, he suggested that the UK had already made “a lot” of concessions and now needed to see movement from Brussels. “Our door is open, we’ll keep talking, but I have to say things are looking tough,” he said.
Johnson yesterday urged EU leaders to “make sense” by abandoning demands that he said “no sensible government” could accept. In the photo: Johnson visits Bolton on Friday, where he suggested that the UK had already made “ a lot ” of concessions and now needed to see movement from Brussels.
‘There is a gap that must be overcome. The UK has done a lot to try to help and we hope our friends in the EU make sense and come to the table with something themselves, because that’s where we really are. “
His comments came after Michel Barnier warned there were ‘only a few hours left’ to secure a deal before the EU’s self-imposed deadline tomorrow night.
The EU’s chief negotiator told the European Parliament that the two sides are now at the “moment of truth” with a “very narrow” path to ensure progress after the resumption of talks in Brussels.
“We have very little time left, just a few hours, to work on these negotiations if we want this agreement to enter into force on January 1,” he said.
In the photo: Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, photographed before a meeting in January. The prime minister is expected to warn the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, that failure to accept Britain’s right to control its own fishing grounds will dampen hopes of a trade deal.
Despite the warning, Barnier and his British counterpart Lord Frost met yesterday to take stock of half an hour.
Barnier held talks with ambassadors from EU coastal states to agree on a new offer on fishing after the derisory initial EU offer was rejected outright.
The EU had initially offered to return a maximum of 15 per cent of its share of fishing quotas from UK waters, with staggered cuts over ten years.
It is understood that Mr. Barnier suggested a slightly improved offer that would see as much as 23 percent of the shares returned within seven years.
Johnson’s comments came after Michel Barnier (pictured) warned that there were “ only a few hours ” left to secure a deal before the EU’s self-imposed deadline tomorrow night.
But British sources, who are pushing for 60 percent of the shares during a transition period lasting no more than three years, described the proposal as “unacceptable.” A source close to the talks said: ‘They still don’t get it. This is nowhere near where they should be for a deal. ‘
Emmanuel Macron is said to be refusing to allow Barnier to make a more realistic offer on the fish. Former Brexit minister David Jones predicted yesterday that the French president’s stance could dampen hopes for a deal.
UK sources said the EU’s proposals on state aid also remain “unacceptable”. Barnier has demanded that the EU have the right to retaliate if the UK gives excessive subsidies to domestic industries. But so far it refuses to reciprocate, meaning the UK would have no compensation if EU states handed out generous subsidies to help its companies undermine their British competitors.
Sources on both sides of the Canal believe a deal is possible this weekend, but warned that talks could drag on until Christmas and beyond, or even collapse entirely.
SIMON WALTERS: Good grief … is fishing a reason to screw up a Brexit trade deal?
By Simon Walters for the Daily Mail
Sir Edward Heath is the Conservative Prime Minister who sold out to British fishermen in 1973 to bring us to what became the European Union.
Boris Johnson doesn’t want to be remembered as the one who sold them to get us out.
That’s one of the main reasons for what appears to be the last hurdle in the Brexit trade talks: fish.
The idea that the UK cuts all ties with Brussels in less than fifteen days without a trade deal, with economic chaos, job losses, endless stagnation in Kent, and higher food prices to be produced, all because we can’t agree on fish seems absurd.
Britain’s 12,000 fishermen make up less than half of 1 per cent of the UK’s workforce. About the same number are expected to lose their jobs as a result of the closure of the Debenhams department store chain.
A commentator yesterday claimed that Harrods in London is worth more to the economy than the fishing industry.
Heath is the bogeyman of the entire Tory Brexiteer. I imagine some have their portrait on a dart board in their shed.
Like many politicians who fought in World War II, Heath passionately believed in European unity.
Unfortunately, he saw the handover of British fishing waters as a price worth paying to achieve it.
Brussels, not Britannia, has ruled the British coastal waves ever since.
Grimsby’s 700-strong fishing fleet, the world’s largest fishing port in the 1950s, where fishermen were known as “ three-day millionaires ” for their overflows during their three days off after a successful catch , has been reduced to a few crab boats. .
In statistical terms, the extent to which EU trawlers loot our waters is alarming. The French take 84% of the cod from the English Channel, the cod, the key part of our fish and chips on Fridays. – compared to our weak 9 percent.
In total, EU fishing vessels carry eight times more fish in our waters than we do; they take 173 times more herring.
But it is more complex than that.
Europeans eat more fish than we do: a visit to any daily market in France will tell you. Much of the fish we catch is exported to the EU; and much of the fish we eat is imported from the EU.
Why? Europeans love our most valuable fish, mackerel; We prefer tuna and shrimp caught in the Mediterranean.
I remember ordering mackerel from a restaurant in a Cornish fishing village years ago and wondering why I had been served frozen inedible fish when I was able to see a trawler landing a fresh catch a few feet in the harbor.
They told me indifferently: ‘All the fish caught here is exported to Spain. We only buy frozen. ‘
In statistical terms, the extent to which EU trawlers loot our waters is alarming. The French take 84% of the cod from the English Channel, cod, the key part of our fish and chips on Fridays. – compared to our weak 9 percent
Things have gotten better since then, largely for Cornwall’s supreme fish chef Rick Stein. And the EU trade dispute is not just about fish, it is about personal and national pride, on both sides of the Canal.
Many Conservative MPs say Johnson’s “regain control” Brexit slogan will make no sense if we can’t even regain control of our coastline.
The Prime Minister has woven it into his ‘sovereignty’ argument, with patriotic votes to make Britain an ‘independent coastal state’ once again and ‘regain our spectacular national maritime wealth’.
It’s even more personal for Michael Gove, who persuaded Johnson to campaign to leave the EU and is the cabinet minister in charge of Brexit negotiations.
During the 2016 EU referendum, Scottish-born Gove was visibly moved when he recounted how his adoptive father’s fish processing business in Aberdeen went bankrupt due to the EU Common Fisheries Policy.
Gove is said to fear “a new Battle of Trafalgar on the Channel” with clashes between the Royal Navy and French fishermen.
He regularly reminds Johnson that there is another Scottish political dividend for Johnson if he wins his tug-of-war with the EU over fish: it could stop the UK breakup. More than half of Britain’s fishing waters are Scottish.
While most Scots opposed Brexit, Johnson loves to goad Nicola Sturgeon that if Scotland is liberated from the UK, it will never get back its precious Brussels fishing waters.
Time is running out to resolve the EU stalemate on fisheries.
Johnson has told the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, that he will settle for regaining control of our waters in three years: he has taken eight years, mainly to appease Emmanuel Macron, who is terrified of molesting fishermen French.
Most of the ministers I have spoken to expect you to meet somewhere in between. (One pointed out that if we got all of our waters back on January 1 we wouldn’t be able to fish anyway because we don’t have enough boats.)
Hopefully Johnson will get most of what he wants.
If it does, more of us will have to start developing a taste for mackerel. Close your eyes and it’s not that different from tuna.
