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Michel Barnier hunts for wiggle room on fish

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The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator is looking for creative compromises on fisheries.

Speaking to EU ambassadors on Wednesday, Michel Barnier stressed there must be more realism on fish from the EU side, and hinted that the EU ultimately has to accept bigger quotas for the U.K.

Both sides emphasized last week that notable areas of considerable disagreement remain in Brexit talks, of which fisheries is one. The U.K. wants negotiations on quotas — meaning the share of the agreed annual catch each nation can take out of the water — to be based on so-called “zonal attachment,” which means calculating the figure based on waters where fish stocks originate. That would result in larger permissible catches for British fisheries. The EU, on the other hand, wants to retain the current access its fishermen have to British waters.

This was the first time Barnier made clear that EU countries will have to give in on some of their demands in order to reach a deal with the U.K., according to two people present in the room.

“Barnier was clear: the EU obviously has to defend its position and its interests,” said one EU official. “But we also have to be realistic in order to reach a deal. It’s also why he’s reaching out again to coastal countries.”

Barnier last week called fisheries ministers from the coastal EU countries: Ireland, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, France and Sweden.

While Barnier conveyed that a compromise on fisheries is possible if both parties make an effort, he also said that intensified talks are necessary, an official from one of the coastal countries said. “Both sides have to make an effort. The U.K. insistence on overly ambitious quota enlargement demands are counterproductive.”

In his calls, Barnier asked about the sensitivities and red lines for each of the coastal countries, who were impressed with his detailed knowledge of the issue, even given his background as a former fisheries minister.

Those discussions have helped him in the search for possible landing zones that avoid fracturing the unity of the EU27.

“He now has a better idea of the sensitivities, even though he knew most of this already,” the official mentioned above said. “The goal of these calls and the discussion with EU ambassadors is not to change the EU’s negotiating mandate, as the U.K. might hope, but to send a signal that we have to be more realistic in order to reach a deal.”

While EU ambassadors on Wednesday asked Barnier to stick to his mandate — which demands current access is maintained — it’s dawning on some that a compromise might be needed. If the two sides don’t reach a deal by the end of December, the U.K. could theoretically cut off access for EU vessels to its waters altogether.

But everything depends on what kind of compromise.

Another EU official said that one possible option could be to zoom in on different fish stocks: Which are crucial for the U.K. and which for the EU? In those stocks that matter most to the EU, how can you find a balance between the interests of the different coastal countries?

To date, Barnier has not given EU countries any indication of where he plans to land. According to the officials mentioned above, this will depend on the U.K.’s willingness to move, not just on fisheries, but also on the EU’s other red lines, the so-called level playing field and the governance of the deal.

The U.K. might be prepared to give way on its insistence that negotiations over fisheries quotas take place every year and could phase in a new approach, chief British negotiator David Frost hinted to U.K. MPs on Wednesday. However, there is no sign yet that the Brits will drop their insistence that quotas should be calculated based on where fish stocks originate.

France, in particular, has been vocal in its resistance and will be hard to win over, officials say. On Thursday, France’s European Affairs Minister Clément Beaune said Paris will not sell out its fishing communities to get a deal. He insisted that a bad deal is worse than a no-deal, a position reiterated by the country’s Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin on Sunday.

But on fisheries, that argument is just not true, another official from one of the coastal countries said. “The U.K. holds the upper hand here. Even France should recognize that on fish a no-deal is the worst possible outcome.”

Jacopo Barigazzi contributed reporting.

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