RTE: EU Focus Now On Access To UK Waters, Not Share Of Fisheries Catch

Some more granular comments [edited for length] on the fisheries issue plaguing Brexit talks in the latest tweet thread/mini blog from RTE's Tony Connelly:

• The focus now is not on the quota share but on access. All the effort in the past few days has been on the question of access. The UK is demanding more absolute "control" over British waters by having the power to deny EU boats access on an annual basis when it comes to individual species.
• I understand this would be done via an annual negotiation on the Total Allowable Catch (TAC). This is basically the mechanism for determining the total catch of a species [...] and is separate from the "quota share" yet to be divvied up. The EU has an annual TAC negotiation every December [...].
• My understanding is that the UK is pressing for the ability to deny access if there is no agreement on the TAC level or individual species during each annual negotiation. The EU has always resisted an annual TAC negotiation. They have one with Norway, but they only share seven stocks with Norway whereas they share over 100 with the UK. So, if the EU agrees to annual TAC negotitaions this would be a concession.
• At this morning's meeting of EU ambassadors, Barnier appeared to accept the concept of an annual TAC negotiation. But he emphasised that any deal would have to give EU fleets stability and predictability.
• "How do you guarantee predictability, stability, whilst still having annual negotiations, how can you have those guarantees which will allow you to sustain a fishing fleet?" says one official briefed on the meeting this morning.
• Barnier told ambassadors one option would be that the EU could impose tariffs on any stocks sold by UK fishermen into the single market if EU boats were denied access to those stocks, or the waters in which those stocks live.
• I'm told these are still in the realm of "ideas" in the ether, and that he has not agreed this with the UK. Member states are said to have emphasised the need for stability - ie, no annual risk of being denied access that would destabilise the European fishing sector.