Three-quarters of small French boats may be
denied fishing in UK waters
UK government has granted licences for only 12 French
vessels out of a total of 47 applications
Charlie
Moloney
Wed 29 Sep
2021 00.03 BST
Three-quarters
of small French fishing boats could be denied access to British waters under a
post-Brexit regime in a move that risks further damaging Anglo-French relations.
The UK
government had granted only 12 out of a total of 47 applications for licences
for the French vessels under 12 metres long to fish the UK’s inshore waters.
Responding
to the government’s announcement on Tuesday night,
France’s
maritime minister, Annick Girardin, condemned the decision. “It’s a new refusal
by the British to implement the conditions of the Brexit agreement despite all
the work we have done together,” she said in a statement. “French fishing
should not be taken hostage by the British for political ends.”
France was
reportedly waiting for responses to requests for fishing licences in the
Channel Islands, where 168 were due from Guernsey and 169 from Jersey, which is
expected to make a statement on Wednesday.
France’s
Europe minister, Clément Beaune, had told a French parliamentary hearing last
week: “We are at the end of our patience. We are continuing our fight.” He
accused the UK of being “unsportsmanlike” in its handling of the licence
requests.
France and
Britain had seen diplomatic tensions rise over the summer due to the number of
small vessels carrying migrants crossing over the Channel.
Boris
Johnson, the UK prime minister, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had
also publicly disagreed over the UK’s decision to sign up to the Aukus defence
pact, which cost France a submarine contract worth billions of dollars.
In May,
France’s response to post-Brexit fishing restrictions around the island of
Jersey was described as “pretty close to an act of war” by fishing community
leaders in St Helier.
They said
they have been told 100 boats were being lined up in France on 6 May for a 6am
blockade at the main Channel Island port, threatening food and energy supplies.
A UK
government spokesperson said: “Our approach has been reasonable and fully in
line with our commitments in the trade and cooperation agreement.”
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