Negotiations between the EU and Norway will resume tomorrow, Thursday 09 February, as both sides seek to hammer out a fisheries agreement for 2023.
Round 5 of the talks between the two will be held over Thursday and Friday with Danish fishing representatives’ hopeful a deal can be reached by close of the week. Their boats have been locked out of traditional fishing grounds in Norwegian waters since 01 January 2023 because Norway will not settle on granting access to the EU Member State.
Amongst the unresolved issues from the last round of negotiations there are issues relating to access to the Svalbard Zone for EU Member States to catch cod, a balancing proposal for capelin exchange, the Norwegian prohibition on beam trawling which mainly effects Dutch and Belgian fisheries and collector bag issues for shrimp trawling.
The big issue for Irish fishing in this round of talks is Norwegian access to the Irish EEZ to fish blue whiting. This is a case of great concern for the Irish, and this is being highlighted by the presence of the IFPO, IS&WFPO, the IFPEA and the KFO, who are all sending their chief representatives to Brussels tomorrow where the negotiations are being held.