| European fisheries are at the heart of a diplomatic crisis brewing between the EU and the UK, their first trade spat since the UK left the European Union in February 2020. Since the start of 2024, London decided to provide more protection for its marine protected areas. First, at the end of January, it banned sand eel fishing in part of the Dogger Bank, an English zone in the North Sea, to protect this fish which feeds a large number of seabirds. The problem? British ships were never fishing for sand eels in the North Sea and Denmark accounted for 90% of the fishing there. On 21 March, it was the turn of bottom fishing. The UK banned this practice in 13 of its marine protected areas, apparently heeding environmental NGOs’ accusations that it is destroying marine ecosystems. Bottom fishing in those areas is mainly carried out by European trawlers – 94% of fishing time, according to a recent study by the Oceana Association. European fleets have been quick to cry ‘discrimination’. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) signed between the EU and the UK after Brexit, which defines the access of European fishermen to British waters, specifies that both parties can take measures to preserve ecosystems. But these measures must be ‘proportionate’ and ‘non-discriminatory’, i.e. they must not affect one party more than the other. On the surface, one might say the UK has done nothing wrong as it just wants the same ban to apply to everyone. But on the other hand, the measure does affect some more than others. The European Commission is now caught in a delicate situation. While it insists that it wants to defend the European fishing sector and do everything it can to safeguard the EU’s interests, a conflict with the UK on this issue would counter its desire to ban bottom fishing in its own marine protected areas (MPAs). This ambition was announced in 2023 in the ‘EU action plan to protect and restore marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries’. | 