Il Regno Unito rifiuta il piano dell’UE di legare il patto di difesa alle quote di pesca

LONDON — The British government has rejected an EU plan to tie talks on fishing rights to other topics in Keir Starmer’s EU reset — including a defense and security pact.

Speaking on Tuesday U.K. Fishing Minister Daniel Zeichner told a parliamentary committee there would be “no linkage” between fishing negotiations and talks in other areas like security or reduced border checks for goods.

EU governments have hinted that agreement on fishing is their price to give ground on Keir Starmer’s own priorities and say the issues should be dealt with as a package.

Member states like France are worried that they could lose lucrative fishing rights in British waters when the current maritime agreement expires in June 2026. They want to move to more permanent access arrangements.

But Zeichner told a hearing of the U.K. parliament’s Environment Committee: “The French will say what they will say, but we are absolutely determined to stand up for the interests of the U.K. fishing industry.”

Stressing that he was the minister in charge of fishing talks, he added: “I wouldn’t believe everything that is rumored around an issue like this, because obviously there is lots and lots of speculation, but of course, we have discussions, because the transitional period comes to an end in the middle of next year. But no decisions have been taken and there is no linkage.”

In January, The Financial Times reported that the French government was refusing to engage on the question of a U.K.-EU security pact without assurances on fishing, with one EU official quoted as saying “everything is now seen as a quid pro quo”.

But Paris is not alone among EU capitals in wanting the issue dealt with as a priority.

Sweden’s EU Affairs Minister Jessica Rosencrantz last week told POLITICO: “I think we have to find a way where we can do both [fishing and security] because we want to move ahead with the defense partnership but for many countries it’s important to solve the other sensitive issues as well.”

A new security pact with Brussels is a key plank of Keir Starmer’s foreign policy strategy in light of moves by Donald Trump to distance himself from European security.

Brussels has proposed a €150 billion loan program for EU governments to spend on re-arming. The funds should be invested on a “buy more European” basis, according to Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.

But without a formal defense agreement with Brussels, the U.K. will be locked out of the scheme.

Let down before

Asked whether he had seen comments by Brexit minister Nick Thomas-Symonds hinting that he favored a more stable arrangement, Zeichner said: “He probably would say that. But what we want to do is to secure the best possible outcome that we can for U.K. fisheries, and that will be a further discussion to be held in the months ahead.

“We’re absolutely determined to stand up to the U.K. fishing industry. The fishing industry has been let down before, and I don’t intend to let that happen again.”

The minister’s comments were welcomed by Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat MP who chairs the Environment Committee, who told him he was “absolutely on the money.”

“Fishermen felt that the deal that was done at the end of the Brexit negotiations was one that did not deliver what they had expected,” he said.

“Anything that is a further backwards step will be viewed very bleakly by the industry, and the even modest progress will still leave them quite a way short of where they want it to be.”

The two things should be utterly unrelated given the crisis.

>“The French will say what they will say, but we are absolutely determined to stand up for the interests of the U.K. fishing industry.”

I can’t believe this needed to be spelt out to the EU….

It’s f*** retarded. What fishing has to do with defence? We seriously have bigger problems that some dumb fish. France can just f*** off and if they want to discuss fishing, make it a separate discussion.

Russia, China, and Trump laughing at us right now

This is why Brexit worked, the EU being petty and engulfing everything in beurocracy.

Honestly, I hope we end up doubling down with the EU and moving as far away from America as possible. But the EU really needs to stop this kind of nonsense, this isn’t the time to be messing about and its clearly to position France in a better place to sell defence contracts with BAE/Rolls Royce being massive competitors.

Can we do things right even fucking once

We should have made the d day landings conditional on the return of Calais

War and Fish

And people wonder why Brexit happened…

Share the fishes !!!

It’s genuinely idiocy like this that motivated a lot of frustration in brexiteers who voted to leave 

It’s a shame the EU engage in self reflection at the decision beyond the “Britain racist” angle….

And it’s shit like this that would make me vote to stay out of the EU, despite voting remain in 2016.

“Give us fish”
Okay take back your economic migrants then

This is so saddening to see, so many British people were behind this deepening of the ties between us and Europe and now that France is just using it as another way to jab us in the back it’s become apparent that this isn’t really much of a crisis at all.

Wtf does fishing have to do with defense, sure when talking commercial deals, loop in anything you like but at this point defense is somewhat of a priority.

Good. If our government agreed to this it would be little more then surrendering for what? The privilege to send our young men and women to die for an ungrateful continent, we have tried to extend the olive branch but that has done nothing.

Perhaps more drastic actions are required such as bringing our armed forces home to possibly get the mere frame work of a defence pact in place.

This isn’t even about the rearmament program (which we are expected to pay into to benefit from) but a pure defence agreement, if nato collapses we have no choice but to leave the continent and our eastern partners to what ever happens.

I thought I was in r/nottheonion for a second.

Let’s meet in the middle – they can fish in our waters, but only if they use our depth charges.

…and they are fishing for Russian submarines