The post-Brexit trade deal thrashed out by Boris Johnson and the European Union gave fishermen from the bloc access to UK waters for five-and-a-half years with 25 percent of EU boats’ fishing rights in UK waters will be transferred to the UK fishing during that time. When the so-called adjustment period ends in June 2026, annual talks will begin to determine the amount of fish EU fishing boats can catch in UK waters and vice versa.
Britain will then have the power to completely withdraw EU boats’ access to its waters and a new poll found a staggering 98 percent (4,167 people) would back such a move, even though Brussels could retaliate by suspending access to its own waters for UK boats or imposing costly tariffs on fish exports from the UK to the EU.
Just 2 percent (62 people) believed the UK would be wrong to scrap the fishing agreement in 2026.
A total of 4,246 people took part in on the Express.co.uk online survey which ran between 10am and 6pm on Monday January 18 2021.
One reader said: “The EU doesn’t deserve our fish. We should scrap it now and walk away from them.”
Another said: “Since the EU is refusing to sign off on the deal for a couple of months, we should immediately ban them from UK waters until they ratify!”
Another reader said: “They should scrap it now.”
And another said: “Why not scrap the deal and go WTO then kick all EU scrounging boats out of our waters? End of.”
Some readers suggested there were environmental issues as well as economic concerns at stake.
One said: “The EU will destroy it rather than see us make a success of it.
“They’ve wrecked the Med and soon all that will be there are jellyfish and they have no idea how to get rid of them once they take hold as the dominant species.”
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After the deal was signed on Christmas Eve, Boris Johnson admitted the UK had given ground to the EU on access to fishing waters but insisted the country will be able to “catch and eat quite prodigious quantities of extra fish”.
But furious UK fishermen have accused the Prime Minister of betrayal and warned their industry had been sacrificed to ensure a Brexit agreement.
Fishing had become a major issue of frustration for both the UK and EU, ever since negotiations began on a Brexit deal following the historic referendum in June 2016.
Announcing details around fishing, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told a press conference on Christmas Eve: “We have achieved reciprocal access to waters and to resources, and with the new distribution of fishing quotas and fishing opportunities which has been directly agreed, as is only natural, between the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Johnson, with taking account of Britain’s new status as an independent coastal state, that is a state which will no longer be part of the Common Fisheries Policy just a few days from now.
“This agreement will require efforts.
“I know the European Union will support its fishermen and women, will accompany them, and that is our commitment.”
