OK, talking about negotiations with closely aligned countries, let’s talk about Greenland.
Because when David wrote that tweet yesterday about previous deals he was thinking in terms of services, but the Greenland negotiation also had a problem with an existing deal, and it wasn't anything to do with services.
When Denmark held their referendum to join the EEC, Greenland were included and locally they voted 69-29 to stay out.
Then Greenland decided to have an in/out referendum ten years later and the vote was 52 to 46 for leave.
The EEC were not happy about Greenland leaving at all, but as far as they were concerned, there was a simple way of doing it.
The relationship with Greenland and Denmark (Rigsfællesskabet) meant that Greenland could be treated as an overseas country under Article 131 of the Treaty of Rome.
Aside for adding some additional provisions, the future relationship Greenland was going to be dealt with under the existing treaty.
The future relationship was going to be close, which meant less divergence, and it didn’t even need a separate deal.
The only other comment the EEC made was that they needed a replacement of the fish conservation measures.
So… no problem.
So… no problem.
Enter Norway....because Norway has a problem.
Norway isn’t in the EEC, it hasn’t been part of the Treaty of Rome, and probably nobody gave Norway a second thought when Greenland announced they were leaving.
Nevertheless, Norway did have a deal with the EEC, and that deal was made on the understanding that the fishing rights covered Greenland’s fishing waters.
Greenland refused to discuss the issue until their special status was concluded, because they didn’t want it to affect their overseas financial aid package.
Denmark also refused because they wanted to secure access for Greenland to the UK market, which was a very important one for Greenland.
The UK, however, wanted the Norwegian deal done, because they wanted to give vessels from Scotland, and the North East, renewed access to Norwegian grounds.
On top of this Germany and the UK refused to go along with this, and wanted to secure their quotas on waters in Greenland.
Greenland, however, not only wants a five year limit, they want to reduce the current quotas. The UK wanted to increase them.
The whole thing becomes both a standoff and a convoluted mess.
Then, to try and offset the financial loss of leaving the EEC, Greenland suggest that because they don’t fish in the EEC, counties like the UK should pay for licenses.
(The UK government refuse to agree to this)
(The UK government refuse to agree to this)
It wouldn't be until September 1983 that Greenland finally agreed to the scheduling which meant that fishing rights were negotiated first.
The EEC then took the position that if Greenland wanted zero tariff to sell into the EEC, they needed to give the community a decent quota. This was seen as being very tough on Greenland.
But at the end Greenland end up with a really good financial aid deal, and the UK and Germany end up with continued access to the West Coast of Greenland.
Both sides were happy with the deal, but this had been a long negotiation held up by a single industry in a country with a population which is, apparently, slightly smaller than that of Croydon.
Although, to be fair, fishing was a major part of Greenland’s economy, whereas it isn’t a major part of the UK economy.
So…as long as we haven’t made ‘fish’ a major thing in Brexit I’m sure this part of the negotiation of that is going to go absolutely fine!
Otherwise, this may be a problem...
Otherwise, this may be a problem...
But who knows what other country is going to have a problem with the terms of an agreed deal which will lead to the EU doubling down on their position?
And remember, Greenland’s final relationship to the EEC was much closer than the UK’s will be, and it didn’t involve a separate deal.
There are some experts saying the deal with the EU is possible in the time, but I personally don’t think it’s possible for someone to say it’s possible with any certainty. There are just too many variables.
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