| UPDATED: 09:20, Sun, Dec 20, 2020
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Lord Frost and Michel Barnier’s respective teams will continue talks in Brussels on Sunday in a bid to close the huge gaps on fisheries and the so-called level playing field – the main obstacles to a deal. A UK Government source said the bloc would need to make a “substantial shift” for a deal to be agreed, adding: We cannot accept a deal that doesn t leave us in control of our own laws or waters.”
By Harry Holmes2020-12-15T10:17:00+00:00
Fishing remains one of the outstanding issues in the UK-EU negotiations
Food businesses are increasingly concerned over threats from French fishermen that goods will be blockaded from entering Europe if a no-deal Brexit excludes their boats from operating in UK waters.
Dimitri Rogoff, president of Normandy’s regional fisheries committee, told French radio on Monday his members would stop ferries carrying British goods entering French ports if they are prohibited from entering UK waters next year. Rogoff added he would expect Dutch and Belgian fishermen to do the same.
The threat has exacerbated existing concerns among some British businesses who fear French fishermen may take actions into their own hands. Richard Hampton, MD of Omsco dairy co-op, said the risk of a blockade was “very much underestimated”, with the business already planning to halt exports to Europe from Boxing Day, for at least the first few weeks of the year.
Owners of the trawler Frank Bonefaas (pictured) were fined £102,000 in March 2015
Ministers are being urged to take action against a foreign-owned super trawler which was once caught by the Royal Navy illegally fishing off the Cornish coast - and now controls the biggest amount of UK fishing quota.
The 119-metre long Frank Bonefaas - which processes and freezes its vast catch on board - is the largest trawler registered in the British fishing fleet. The trawler controls 23 per cent of England’s fishing quota and lands its entire catch in Holland.
Campaigners say the operation of Frank Bonefaas exposes that even after the Brexit transition, more than half of England’s fishing quota will be controlled by foreign fishing companies in Holland, Spain and Iceland. They want a radical overhaul of fisheries policy to ensure more quota for British fisherman.