Danish fishermen want UK sand eels « Euro Weekly News

Of no particular interest to any European restaurant although a delicacy for puffins, cod and haddock, the humble sand eel is about to see the UK and EU come to blows in court.

The Rishi Sunak government was praised by environmentalists when it introduced a ban on all vessels from catching the species in English waters in March 2024  with a similar ban in Scottish waters brought in by the Scottish government soon after.

Only birds and fish eat sand eels but Danish fisherman want to be allowed to catch them in British waters

This is hardly a major industry, but Danish vessels do fish for the small silvery sand eel as it is used by animal feed companies and fish oil producers, so after complaining to the European Union, the matter is being tested in court.

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The Labour Government has so far kept the ban in place and the two sides are due to meet on January 21 at the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration, a dispute resolution body based in the Hague which will be overseen by a panel of three mutually-agreed international trade judges.

European Union takes UK to Court of Arbitration to support Danish fishermen and their wish to fish for sand eels

The European Union case is whether the UK’s right to restrict trawlers for conservation reasons unnecessarily restricts agreed EU fishing rights as detailed in the terms of the Brexit agreement although the British argument against this has not yet been revealed.

The court will have until the end of April to make a decision and there is no room for appeal but equally, as the UK is no longer part of the EU, the only way it can be enforced, should the UK chose to ignore a negative decision, would be the introduction of trade tariffs by the EU.

A  serious falling out with the European Union at a time when the current Labour government is trying to mend Brexit bridges and negotiate a closer relationship is not likely to be helped by this, the first time that the two parties have gone to the Court of Arbitration since the Brexit trade agreement was made in 2021.

It certainly doesn’t seem an important enough matter to defy the European Union should the court find in favour of the EU, but the conservationists and hard line Brexiteers will be pushing for the UK to stay firm, even though the 2021 trade deal covering fishing limits runs out in June of this year.

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