LONDON — Brexit Britain is to remain a safe haven for sand eels after EU legal action to reverse a ban on catching the snakey fish failed.
The U.K. government beefed up its marine environmental protections after leaving the EU — enraging continental fishermen and prompting a legal challenge last year.
But the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Friday ruled that the U.K.’s ban was based on the best available science and did not discriminate against EU fishers.
However, it also ruled that the U.K. had made a procedural error in bringing in the ban by not giving due regard to the rights of EU fishers during an adjustment period — as required under the Brexit trade deal.
The fish are fed to livestock by farmers in countries like Denmark, but are also the favored food of baby seabirds.
Conservationists have long pushed for the ban on fishing the stock in a bid to give the endangered birds a break — and a chance at arresting their falling numbers.
A U.K. government spokesperson said the judgment “does not mean the U.K. is legally obliged to reverse the closure” and that it would now “undertake a process in good faith to bring the U.K. into compliance on the specific issues raised by the Tribunal.”
“We remain committed to protecting our seabirds and the wider marine environment, in accordance with our commitments to the TCA [the U.K.-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement] and other international agreements,” they added.
A European Commission spokesperson told reporters on Friday afternoon that the bloc’s executive was “still analyzing this ruling.”
Beccy Speight, the chief executive of Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said she was “absolutely delighted the panel has found the ecological case for the closure of industrial sand eel fishing is sound.”
“We now expect the U.K. government and the EU to move forward and make this closure permanent. Safeguarding sand eel stocks is a key part of the jigsaw that will help set our puffins, kittiwakes and the wider marine environment on the path to recovery.”
Ben Reynolds, director of the Institute for European Environmental Policy think tank, said the judgment was “welcome news for the environment,” adding that the case was “one of only a handful of issues where the U.K. has used its post-Brexit powers to go further than the EU on tightening up protection of the environment.”
The judgment comes as EU and U.K. negotiators are locked in talks about how to improve the post-Brexit cross-Channel relationship. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will host EU chiefs in London on May 19 to confirm progress.
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