What’s been agreed between the UK and the EU on fishing?

The big political story today has been a wide-ranging deal between the UK and EU on fishing, defence, passport checks and more. We’re currently looking into a number of claims around this—but the agreement on fishing has grabbed many of the headlines today.

The UK has agreed to maintain the right of EU vessels to fish in UK waters until 2038, with the current deal under the original Brexit agreement having been due to expire next year.

The government has said the deal provides “stability and certainty for the sector”—comments echoed by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who said that it offers “long-term stability and predictability” for the fishing industry.

But while welcomed by some, the decision has been heavily criticised by others, including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who described it as a “sell-out”, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who said it could be “the end of the fishing industry”.

Some fishermen have also expressed disappointment that there will not be the opportunity for "regular renegotiations".

So what’s actually been agreed?

The deal essentially maintains the status quo on EU access to UK waters.

After Brexit, the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) established full reciprocal access to EU and UK waters until 30 June 2026, with access after that subject to annual consultations. Reciprocal access has now been extended for a further 12 years, to 2038.

Previously, as a member of the EU, the UK was part of the Common Fisheries Policy, which set out quotas for the amount of fish other EU countries could catch in UK waters, and vice versa.

Under the TCA, the EU agreed to transfer 25% of its pre-Brexit quota share in UK waters to the UK—this transfer would be implemented gradually over a five-and-a-half year period, with annual consultations taking place to agree the ‘total allowable catch’ for each year.

The TCA terms stated that from July 2026 onwards the quota shares would remain “stable at the 2025 level, and cannot be changed without the mutual consent of the parties”.

The government says that the deal agreed today means there will be “no increase in the amount of fish EU vessels can catch in British waters”.

We asked the Cabinet Office whether this means the fishing quotas set to be in place once the agreed 25% EU quota transfer has been completed next year will now be in force until 2038.

In response, it pointed us to a government document outlining details of the new agreement, which states that “there is no change to EU quota levels under this agreement”, but does not clarify whether quotas could be renegotiated in the future.

It’s worth noting that while EU vessels have access to UK waters, they do still require licences from the UK to fish there.