The Scottish government was keen to do a deal on Rockall if it voted for independence and rejoined the EU, according to confidential documents.
As The Guardian reports, confidential letters and other heavily redacted documents about the crisis several years ago, which involved interception of Irish vessels fishing within Rockall’s 12-mile limit,indicate that the then Scottish prime minister Nicola Sturgeon tried repeatedly to resolve Rockall “difficulties”.
Ireland was seen as a key ally for Scotland within the EU, and Rockall “often topped the agenda in her meetings with the successive taoiseachs Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar and talks involving other ministers”, the newspaper says.
The documents obtained by the newspaper after a three-year battle show the dispute erupted in September 2018 when Fiona Hyslop, then Scotland’s external affairs secretary, wrote to Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney and “appeared to accuse the Irish of reneging on an undertaking to stop its trawlers from fishing around Rockall”.
The letter recounts how both sides had an informal agreement in April 2017 to suspend enforcement action against Irish trawlers.
“I believe that the Scottish government has shown considerable patience during the preceding 18-month period,” the newspaper reports Hyslop as telling Coveney.
“[However] the continued high level of fishing by Irish vessels in the UK’s territorial sea around Rockall and the lack of progress in our bilateral conversations mean that is now time for us to take action,” she said.
“Senior sources say that if Scotland had become independent and applied to rejoin the EU, Scottish ministers were ready to negotiate access to Rockall’s waters in order to rejoin the common fisheries policy. It is understood that was made clear by Sturgeon to Irish leaders,” the newspaper reports.
Read more in The Guardian here
