Political journalist
EPANegotiations with the United Kingdom on future fishing quotas should not have a security agreement, suggested the head of the European Union foreign policy.
Kaja Kallas told the BBC Newsnight that “some elements” of an agreement should be concluded but “I think we are on the fish”.
This occurs while the United Kingdom and the EU prepare to organize a summit in London next week during which they hope to announce a security and defense pact.
It has been reported that certain EU countries, in particular France, wish to link future access to British waters for fishing with wider negotiations.
Kallas previously said that she was “surprised by the importance of fish” in talks.
Asked on Monday if the fish could conclude a security agreement, she told the BBC: “No, I think we are on the fish.”
Pressed again if the disagreements on fishing had been treated, she said: “As any transaction is not together, unless everything is agreed, we still have a few elements there, but I hope we will get there.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted to “reset” post-Brexit relations of the United Kingdom with the EU and seek narrower links with the block.
The UK’s objectives include a defense agreement, as well as a broader negotiation of its commercial relationship.
A security pact could pave the way for greater involvement in the United Kingdom in defense supply projects on the EU level, as well as access to a loan program for British defense companies.
However, a point of collision was fishing arrangements, which should expire in June of next year as part of the post-Brexit trade agreement agreed in 2020.
France wants a long -term agreement which gives the EU continuous access to the same fish levels after 2026, rather than negotiating quotas each year.
The fishing industry is only small in the global context of the economic relationship of the United Kingdom, but has long occupied significant political importance.
One of the main requests of the EU is that the mobility program of young people, which would allow young people to study and work more easily in the United Kingdom and Vice Versa, for a period limited in time.
The United Kingdom previously declared that it had “no plan” for such a program, but its opposition to the idea has softened in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, the European Minister of European Relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, told Financial Times that the United Kingdom would consider “the proposals of the reasonable EU in this space”.
Debate of the outbuildings
The EU wanted to emphasize that an agreement for young people would not reproduce the rules of the block on freedom of movement, under which the citizens of the EU automatically had the right to live and work in the United Kingdom without asking for a visa.
But the conservatives suggested that an agreement “reintroduce free traffic through the rear door”.
In the House of Commons later, the party seeks to force a symbolic vote on its requests, which also include the appeal to the government not to “make our fishing rights” or to “create a dynamic alignment between the United Kingdom and the EU”.
Dynamic alignment means that the United Kingdom would maintain regulations similar to the EU, reducing controls when food, animals or plants cross the border.
Foreign Secretary, Priti Patel, said: “Work cannot trust our Brexit freedoms.
“Keir Starmer and many of his cabinet spent years campaigning to reverse the referendum, and this so-called reset is the first step in their mission to betray Brexit.”
Gibraltar speaks “unresolved”
Meanwhile, the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, suggested that an agreement on Gibraltar will be necessary to ensure a closer relationship of the United Kingdom.
Discussions on the rules of the boundaries between Spain and Gibraltar – a British territory abroad – continued since the United Kingdom left the EU in 2020.
Albares told BBC Newsnight that the problem was “not yet solved”.
“There is no agreement, and it’s very clear,” he said.
“This is part of the withdrawal agreement. We must resolve the question of Gibraltar in order to have a European-union-UK relationship.”
