Council Decision (EU) 2025/1301 of 17 June 2025 establishing the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union in a Specialised Committee established by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, as regards a decision of that Specialised Committee
The position to be taken on the Union’s behalf in the Specialised Committee on Fisheries established by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, as regards the arrangements on the level and conditions of access granted by each Party to vessels of the other Party to fish in its waters, which are to be considered as the level and conditions of access determined for the purposes of Article 500(1), (4) and (5) of the Agreement for the period from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2038, is set out in the draft Decision of the Specialised Committee on Fisheries attached to this Decision.
This Decision sets out the arrangements on the level and conditions of access granted by each Party to vessels of the other Party to fish in its waters, which are to be considered as the level and conditions of access determined for the purposes of Article 500(1), (4) and (5) of the Agreement. For greater certainty, Article 500(2) of the Agreement is unaffected by this Decision.
This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption.
1. Provided that TACs have been agreed, each Party shall grant vessels of the other Party:
(a)
full access to fish the stocks listed in Annex 35 and tables A, B and F of Annex 36 of the Agreement in each other’s EEZ and in the waters of the Parties between six and twelve nautical miles from the baselines in ICES divisions 4c and 7d-g at a level that is reasonably commensurate with the Parties’ respective shares of the TACs;
(b)
full access to fish the non-quota stocks in each other’s EEZ and in the waters of the Parties between six and twelve nautical miles from the baselines in ICES divisions 4c and 7d-g at a level that at least equates to the average tonnage fished by that Party in the waters of the other Party during the period 2012-2016.
For the purposes of points (a) and (b), full access to fish between six and twelve nautical miles from the baselines in ICES divisions 4c and 7d-g applies for qualifying vessels to the extent that each Party’s qualifying vessels had access to those waters on 31 December 2020. ‘Qualifying vessel’ shall have the same meaning as ‘qualifying vessel’ in Article 500(4) as defined for the purposes of Article 500(4)(c).
2. The access set out in point (a) of paragraph 1 shall also be granted where a stock listed in Annex 35 or in tables A and B of Annex 36 remains without an agreed TAC on 20 December of any given year and each Party has set a provisional TAC pursuant to Article 499 of the Agreement. The same shall apply, mutatis mutandis , to the access set out in point (b) of paragraph 1 to fish non-quota stocks.
3. The arrangements set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not include financial commitments and quota transfers between the Parties.
The Parties may, for reasons of transparency, incorporate the arrangements set out in Article 2 in the Written Records of the annual fisheries consultations referred to in Article 498(6) of the Agreement.
This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption.
It shall apply from 1 July 2026. It shall cease to apply on 30 June 2038 unless the Specialised Committee on Fisheries adopts a decision to extend it.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
