Post-Brexit fishing licenses: London rejects Brussels ultimatum set for Friday evening

Published on : 12/09/2021 – 19:47

The escalation continues at European level: the United Kingdom rejected, Thursday, December 9, the deadline set for Friday by the European Commission to settle the dispute over post-Brexit fishing licenses with France, which accuses London of bad faith and promises to go to litigation.

“We never set a deadline,” spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday evening, “they set one, but it’s not the one we’re working on.”

“Just work in good faith with us”

Comment from French President Emmanuel Macron a few minutes later on all the subjects of disagreement with London (fishing, migrants, defense): “I really want to have a government that wishes to simply work in good faith with us, “he said at a press conference.

Earlier in the day, the French Minister of the Sea had warned that if all the fishing licenses still requested were not granted by Friday evening, France would ask for arbitration at European level and would go “to litigation”.

Eleven months after the post-Brexit trade agreement and while marathon negotiations are continuing, France protested the “sluggishness” of the European Commission and obtained that it gives a deadline in London, fixed at “December 10 “.

The patience of French fishermen has reached its limits, said Thursday the French Minister of the Sea, Annick Girardin, during a hearing in the Senate.

She promised to request, for lack of licenses by Friday evening, the meeting of the partnership council, supposed to guarantee the application of the post-Brexit agreement.

“This is also where the sanctions can be decided”, she said, adding: “It is the Commission which will bring the litigation and the retaliatory measures if they were to be implemented”.

France has obtained 1,004 post-Brexit fishing licenses and “is still waiting for 104”, according to the Ministry of the Sea.

“Red list”

Under the agreement signed at the end of 2020 between London and Brussels, European fishermen can continue to work in British waters provided they can prove that they were fishing there before. But the French and the British argue over the nature and extent of the supporting documents to be provided.

While once again welcoming the constructive work carried out with the Channel Island of Guernsey, which issued around forty licenses at the beginning of December, the Minister deplored the “delaying tactics” of the United Kingdom during the eleven months since the signing of the agreement.

The greatest number of French licenses is now lacking in the 6-12 British mile zone.

Discussions are also tense with Jersey, which grants its licenses in a trickle, which “maintains the tension”, according to Annick Girardin. Paris is still awaiting 51 definitive licenses from the government of Saint-Hélier, including in priority those requested for the ten fishermen classified on the “red list”, who no longer have any access to Jersey waters while their activity depends very largely on it.

Fishing methods and quotas

The minister returned to the last eleven months at length, not sparing the European Commission: “the President of the Republic had to get angry”, she recalled, while considering that on the eve of the deadline set by Brussels, France and the Commission were “totally on the same line”.

In this fishing issue, the tone has already risen, bordering on confrontation on several occasions: a blockade of Jersey by French fishermen last May, which resulted in the dispatch of two British patrol boats; an inflation of French threats of sanctions in October; and more recently, the blocking by French fishermen of the ports and freight terminal of the Channel Tunnel, through which 25% of trade between the United Kingdom and Europe passes.

Beyond the issue of licenses, that of fishing methods and quotas also promises to be very difficult. French fishermen, who are ready for new actions, will be particularly attentive to the meeting of European ministers of agriculture and fisheries, who must negotiate, Sunday and Monday, in Brussels, fishing quotas for 2022.

With AFP