The EU and Britain failed to reach agreement on how to divvy up post-Brexit fish quotas in shared waters from next year, officials said Tuesday, meaning provisional quotas will apply, IgbereTV reports.
“Unfortunately, and despite our best efforts to conclude in a timely manner, consultations with the UK on fishing opportunities for 2022 are still ongoing,” EU fishing commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius told a news conference.
European Union fishing ministers had approved quotas from January 1, 2022 in EU waters extending into the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the North Sea and the Black Sea, he announced.
But Brussels and London still remain apart on how to share fish stocks in areas plied by both EU and British trawlers, reflecting broader EU-UK tensions that have festered since Britain left the bloc nearly two years ago.
“We haven’t reached an agreement with the UK. We’re remaining optimistic and we do hope it will be possible to reach it by the 20th of December,” Slovenian Fishing Minister Joze Podgorsek said.
He said that “provisional quotas” with the UK on shared fishing stocks would remain in force until a new agreement was hammered out.
Sinkevicius said the “contingency proposal” being applied would last for three months on the pro-rata basis of 2021 catch limits, with allowances for seasonal catches
