The European Union (EU) will seek to keep the UK tied to the bloc’s restrictive fishing quota system during the proposed two-year Brexit ‘transition period’.

The UK should continue to be subjected to the widely despised European Common Fisheries Policy, Brussels diplomats and Brexit negotiators have agreed, according to The Guardian.

The policy gives European boats access to the UK’s territorial waters and places harsh restrictions on how many fish UK fishermen can take, sometimes forcing them to throw them overboard dead.

Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, has previously said the UK will “take back control” of fishing after Brexit in 2019.

However, an EU diplomat told The Guardian: “We notice Gove hasn’t repeated that recently. Perhaps he has been reined in because it isn’t going to happen.”

The claim comes two days after the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said he wanted to continue “cooperating” with the UK on fishing after Brexit, as well as other areas.

“From our point of view, we think that in addition to trade, our partnership should include security, defence and foreign policy, as well as justice and home affairs and include some sectors such as aviation and fisheries,” he said on Tuesday.

Mr. Barnier also used the speech to warn the UK that a future trade deal would not be “frictionless” and the UK would not be granted “all the benefits of the Customs Union and the Single Market”.

He insisted, however, that only offering the UK trading relations worse than they are now was “not a question of punishment or revenge”.

A leaked EU dossier, reported Wednesday, revealed how worried some European coastal regions are about losing the right to fish the UK’s waters.

An official from the French département of Finistère, in Brittany, said there was “a real economic risk” and revealed that 50 per cent of the fishing activity in Brittany is made in British waters.

Meanwhile, the Dutch provinces of Flevoland and Overijssel predict a potential drop of 60 per cent in fishing business if they cannot access UK waters.