of EU and Norway After months of negotiations on EU waters outside the North Sea of the Irish and Norwegian economies, an agreement on quotas has been reached.
Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Björnal Skarán, said: “We are happy that an agreement has finally been reached.
“Of course, it is important for us to deliver on these agreements, and ideally we would have liked to have seen that we were able to achieve our goals weeks ago.
“At the same time, it was important for Norway to ensure a balanced agreement that protects Norway’s core interests in the long term.
“We are in control of this with this agreement and we are pleased with the results of our fishing this year.
“Negotiations with the EU have been underway since October last year, with countless hours spent in Oslo, Brussels negotiation meetings and video calls at the political and official level. Among the issues separated at the time were Norwegian vessels’ access to cod fish in EU waters outside Ireland and EU vessels’ access to fish in the Norwegian Economic Area in the North Sea.
“There have been some difficult times, but I am happy that the negotiations have finally led to a positive outcome.
“Once the quota swap is in place, Norwegian fishermen will be able to start fishing with our swapped quota, including shrimp, halibut and redfish off the coast of Greenland, and pollock in the EU zone.
“In the exchange agreement, the EU received a quota of 9,150 tonnes of cod in the Barents Sea, the fisheries and oceans minister said.”
Officials in the Brussels area and Oslo also signed the Agreement on Resource Management in Skagerrak and the protocol of the so-called Neighborhood Agreement with Sweden. This has allowed some Swedish vessels to sell cod, pollock, haddock, herring and industrial fish in limited areas of the NVG Norwegian Economic Area.
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Back in December 2022, Norway signed an agreement with the UK to ensure “the stability of the UK whitefish fishery by continuing access to all waters into 2023”.
UK fisheries are one of the most contentious topics in the Brexit negotiations.
Britain’s environment minister Mark Spencer said in December that Britain had gained a further 30,000 tonnes of fishing quota as a result of Brexit.
“The UK fisheries opportunity is being negotiated in three main forums, first bilaterally between the UK and the EU. Agreed: Non-Allotted Shares.
“The deal will provide the UK fleet with over 140,000 tonnes of fishing opportunities, valued at around £282 million based on historical landing prices. We have agreed to an access arrangement for the UK-EU for the first time through written records.
“For unallocated resources, we have agreed to roll over our access arrangements for 2023, allowing the UK fleet, worth around £25m a year in EU waters, to continue to access unallocated resources.”
He added: “The UK has about 30,000 tonnes more quota from these negotiations as a result of the increased quota share agreed in the Trade and Cooperation Agreements.”
