George Eustice heralded the “liberating” experience of leaving the bloc and urged fishermen to keep faith with the Government as Theresa May brings control of UK waters back from Brussels to Britain.
For years the European Union has meddled in British fishing waters, the secretary of state for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said today.
Mr Eustice told Express.co.uk he was excited at the chance of finally regaining control of Britain’s waters for the first time in decades.
And the MP said farmers and the agricultural industry will also benefit from Brexit, with the option to remove “stifling” EU rules.
Speaking at Defra in London he said: “It’s been quite a liberating experience, the decision to leave the EU, because it means whole swathes of areas, most notable farming and fisheries – two very big totemic EU policies – are going to go.
GETTY
The UK is finally freeing itself from the EU’s fishery laws, George Eustice has declared
We have this rather bonkers system
“They’re going to be replaced again with domestic policies. It’s the first time in half a century we’re going to be able to apply ourselves in a creative away from first principles.”
He hit out at the EU’s farm subsidy system, describing it as “bonkers” and “stifling”.
Mr Eustice said: “We are looking at moving away from the subsidy system we have now. We have this rather bonkers system which rewards farmers based on how much land they own so the biggest payments for support go to the largest and wealthiest landowners.
“At the other end the farmers that perhaps need it most get the least.”
GETTY
The EU currently restricts Britain’s ability to determine who fishes in its waters
He said EU regulations on farms were “not a pretty sight”, resulting in bizarre and petty rules holding back Britain’s farmers.
Mr Eustice said: “As a farming minister here I’ve wrestled with EU law for four years and it’s not a pretty sight. Stifling nature of the rules and regulations around the common agricultural policy.
“Dictating what the minimum width of a hedge is, the maximum width of a hedge, rules about what width a gateway can be. It goes on forever.”
And he urged fishermen to keep the faith in the Brexit process, despite concerns EU laws will initially be enacted into UK law.
He said: “Fishermen are very sceptical group of people. They all supported, almost down to the last man, leaving the European Union. They knew that the common fisheries policy has been a disaster for the fisheries industry.
Fishermen block port of Calais in protest over pulse fishing
Thu, January 25, 2018
French fishermen blocked the port of Calais, preventing cross-Channel ferries arriving or departing, and a road leading to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, about 30 kilometres southwest of Calais, to demand a ban on electric pulse fishing in the North Sea. Pulse fishing involves dragging electrically-charged lines just above the seafloor that shock marine life up from low-lying positions into trawling nets
1 of 7
A fishermen from the French city of Boulogne walks past burning tyres blocking the access to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer
“But the key party I say to them: we have to keep our heads on this, we have important negotiations ahead. But international law is absolutely crystal clear that when we leave the EU we become what is called under UN law an independent coastal state.”
He said this means the UK will regain exclusive access to the waters up to 12 nautical miles out from the coast, as well as power over who fishes in an area up to 200 miles away.
Mr Eustice said: “Whereas at the moment the vast majority of our waters are dubbed an EU resource – and the EU literally does negotiations on our behalf claiming our resources are their resources with the likes of Norway and the Faroe Islands – in future we’ll be conducting those negotiations ourselves.
“We’ll be determining who has access to our waters and we will be in a very strong position to say we want a fairer share of quotas where we don’t get a fair share at the moment.”
GETTY
George Eustice told Express.co.uk he was delighted the EU’s ‘bonkers’ regulations are nearing an end
He said any transition period would see EU laws enacted into UK laws but said they could be removed at any time.
The minister said: “That’s about providing continuing so people know where they stand. You would then have freedom to change that after time.
“If you decide a particular regulation that governs what type of net is used to catch haddock should change, we will be free as an independent country to change that.”
Earlier this week environment secretary Michael Gove also heralded the future of British fishing and farming outside the bloc.
He said: “Mr Gove said: “It is undoubtedly the case that some policies integral to the EU, such as aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), have done damage.
“During our membership there have also been actions for good — particularly around environmental principles and governance. We see this in the attention paid to high standards of biosecurity, cleaner air and beaches, and the protection of certain wildlife species.
“Yet one of the main reasons why I campaigned for the UK to leave the EU was the long-term harm inflicted by the CAP and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Both have been reformed in their time… but neither properly put the environment first.”