Denmark said that the UK is breaching the post-Brexit deals for fishing and plans to ban destructive bottom trawling in a North Sea conversation zone.
But the Uk government announced in February that it would enforce the ban, a step that the environmentalists praised, hoping it will see a resurgence of halibut and other sea animals resurgence.
In an interview with the Guardian, Denmark’s fisheries minister, Rasmus Prehn, said such plans were not in line with the post-Brexit deal. “The Brexit agreement ensures full access [for EU vessels] to fish in UK waters until 2026. And therefore, of course, it is a very big problem for us if the British government is going to change that. We find that unacceptable and it’s a breach of our agreement.”
The charge opens a new front for the UK government, already embroiled in a rancorous dispute with France over fishing rights, against a wider backdrop of post-Brexit tensions with the EU.
According to the Danish government, Dogger Bank, a large shallow sandbank around 150km north-east of the Humber estuary, has been fished by Danish boats for centuries and is among the country’s most important fishery.
Under the Brexit trade and cooperation agreement struck between the EU and the UK last Christmas Eve, EU fishers can continue to access UK waters as before until 30 June 2026, a transition to delay the blow of reduced fishing rights in future. The deal also commits both sides to “promoting the long-term sustainability” of the 70 common fish in the shared waters.
Prehn said Danish fishers “are already very in a very difficult situation due to Brexit so this would be even more difficult for them and we can’t really accept that”.
While he said it was premature to discuss potential retaliation, he revealed his disappointment over how relations between the UK and Denmark had deteriorated since Brexit. “It’s really difficult to make an agreement and just one year after we have these problems with one part; that is not really acceptable, that is not how we usually make agreements. With the UK we used to have a very good relationship.”
He was speaking from Brussels, as the UK and EU embark on the final sprint of negotiations to set catch limits for fishing in 2022, ahead of a 10 December deadline.
Denmark and the UK entered the then European Economic Community together in 1973, but arrived too late to influence the first version of the common fisheries policy, leaving a lingering sense of resentment for British officials.
