Brexit and the Consequences for Fisheries Management in the North Sea

Since the introduction of the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) regime, the North Sea coastal states have cooperated in the management of shared stocks. Norway and the EU reached a cooperative management agreement for five such stocks in 1980. This includes the annual setting of total allowable catch quotas (TACs), while quota sharing has remained unchanged. With Brexit there will be three parties, and a new agreement will be required. The UK zone is important not only for British fishermen, but also for Norway and UK27, which may give rise to challenging negotiations. Nevertheless, this must be viewed in a larger context, as a new trade agreement could be very important also for a fisheries agreement. In this analysis, three scenarios are considered: I the status quo, essentially included as a point of reference, II a new agreement involving Norway, the UK and the EU27, and III no agreement between the UK and the EU EEZ, which would have serious consequences also for Norway.