UK Fishers: EU Agreement

Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Lord Ricketts

Monday 31st March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I just mentioned, we need long-term strategies to give greater stability to the fishing sector. We are also very keen that we develop our policy in this area by working with the industry and talking to fishers and their representatives, so that they have direct input into how we move forward and that we understand, from their perspective, how best we can support them.

[Lord Ricketts (CB)]

My Lords, given the overriding importance of reaching an early agreement with the EU on defence and security, does the Minister agree that the right way to handle the issue of fisheries with the EU at this stage is to use the 19 May EU-UK summit to agree to a joint commitment to find a mutually agreeable solution on fisheries within a particular time well ahead of the 26 June deadline?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I made quite clear, we intend to negotiate with the EU in the best interests of the fishing industry and to protect our fishing communities. However, due to the nature of the current negotiations regarding the EU reset, I am not in a position to give any further information about what we discussed at those meetings.