Scottish Fishermen’s Federation says EU deal is ‘disastrous’

Some sections of the fishing industry of Scotland have accused the government of Sir Keir Starmer or “capitular” to the EU on an agreement on access to the waters of the United Kingdom.

Labor ministers have agreed a 12 -year agreement that extends existing access for EU ships in exchange for reduced controls in food exports.

The agreement was described as “disastrous” by the Fishermen’s Federation of Scotland (SFF), while the attached prime minister Kate Forbes said it was a “great betrayal of our fishing fleet.”

But the body of fish farming Scotland welcomed the treatment as a “bureaucracy cut” Why does Scottish products and people be easier to access the EU?

The prime minister announced the agreement as part of the first Summit of the UK-EE, describing it as a “win-win.”

He said that “would tear down” the barriers to trade and end the “huers” process of selling Scottish products in Europe.

Starmer added that the fishing agreement would protect the access of the United Kingdom without an increase in EU vessels, while other measures meant that seafood could now be sold again in Europe.

“This agreement is not about review of the old obsolete debates of the past,” he said.

“It’s time for Great Britain to look forward and be like a proud and sovereign nation on the world stage, to get the best treatment for the people of Scotland and Britain.”

The new sanitary and phytosanitary agreement (SPS) would also benefit other agricultural exhibitors, while tourists can use the Egates in some airports to reduce the waiting times of the passport tail, added Starmer.

Forbes welcomed a closer cooperation that “unlocks a small part of the damage that Brexit continues to inflict.”

But she criticized the lack of consultation with the Scottish government for the fishing agreement.

“Given the importance of fishing in Scotland, it is also surprising that the Scottish government has not granted any warning of this great treaty of our fishing fleet,” he said.

But Sff’s executive director, Elspeth Macdonald, said she was worried that the agreement ends any “leverage” that the United Kingdom is in future negotiations.

She told the Good Morning Scotland program of BBC Radio: “This is not a list, it is a total capitulation for the EU and a disastrous result for the Scottish fishing fleet.

“The EU has clearly breached an agreement to which they registered in 2020 and have said that they need to have another agreement for several years.

“But in doing so, the United Kingdom loses all its negotiation capital and all its influence, so the EU continues to take a much greater part of the resources in our waters than they are entitled.

“We have always passed in this position in which fishing seems to be the expendable price of something that the United Kingdom costs the chickens.”

While the agreement has been criticized, it has also been welcome in other parts of the Fishing and Production Industries of Scotland.

Tavish Scott, Executive Director of Salmon Scotland, said the new agreement would help reduce time tasks to bring products to the EU market.

The body said that the International Salmon from Scotland reached a record of £ 844 million in 2024, with France, where the Scottish salmon receives the quality brand “Label Rouge”, the largest market with £ 462 million.

Scott said the agreement could open new opportunities for Scottish producers in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, where demand is increasing despite the hard competition of Norway and Chile.

“This advance will relieve the burden of our farmers, processors and the communities that support,” he said.

“The Scottish salmon is the largest export of food in the United Kingdom, with a strong demand in the EU, the United States and beyond.”

The agreement also benefits seafood producers after the EU prohibited British fishermen from selling live mussels, oysters, clams, cockles and going to their member states in 2021.

According to these rules, fishermen were not allowed to transport animals to the EU unless they had already been treated in purification plants.

Mike Park, executive director of the Scottish Association of Fish White, described the agreement as an “absolute Bewyal”.

He said it was the “third time” that the fishing industry had been “sold by the river”, citing decisions of former Prime Minister Ted Heath, who carried the UK in the EU in 1973, and Boris Johnson, who negotiated his departure after Brexit in 2020.

Park said: “We understand the free flow of food products, the EU benefits from that and the United Kingdom benefits from it.

“But here we have a massive fleet that reaches the waters of the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom’s fishing industry obtains anything from it.”

The Scottish conservative deputy of Gordon and Buchan, Harriet Cross, described the agreement as a “surrender” and “one of the largest acts of drinking that our fishing industry has seen in Scotland.”

She said: “Our fishermen have a leg used as a pawn of Keir Starmer, which will result in consequent catastrophic for our coastal communities.”

The United Kingdom government also announced a fund of £ 360 million to invest in coastal communities as part of the agreement.

He said that would go to new technologies and teams to modernize the fleet, train labor forces to increase labor forces and help “revitalize” coastal communities.

Keir Starmer has described this UK-EU agreement as a “mutual benefit”, but it is not necessarily how each part of the Scottish fishing industry sees it.

The very contrasting reactions of the Federation of Scottish fishermen, which has been accused of the United Kingdom government of “capitulation”, and Salmon Scotland, who has welcomed an agreement that believes that “will cut the bureaucracy”, underlines the fact that any agreement involves commercials.

The United Kingdom government is trying to compensate for the disappointment of some in the fishing industry with a fund of £ 360 million for coastal communities.

There are aspects of a narrower cooperation between the United Kingdom and the EU that the Scottish government is happy to welcome.

However, there will never be a package that would satisfy SNP ministers, since they favor a return to the EU.

They argue that the best way to achieve that is through Scottish independence. But that debate has lost much of its previous energy.

A previous “restart” in relations between the United Kingdom and returned governments has improved the way they work together.

But Scottish ministers argue that they should have been consulted on today’s agreement, despite the fact that foreign issues are a matter reserved for Westminster.