France threatens Great Brittany sanctions in the event that London would not grant more licenses to French fishermen.
Le Monde with AFP
Meeting at the top to try to ease tensions about the fishing record. The British Secretary of State in charge of Brexit, David Frost, must meet, Thursday, November 4 at the end of the morning, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, Paris.
Paris and London are in conflict on the fishing licenses granted to Europeans after the Brexit, to the point that France threatens the Great Britain of sanctions if London does not grant more licenses to the French fishermen.
In particular, France had planned to prohibit last Monday at midnight with British fishing vessels to land their cargoes in the French ports, and to strengthen the customs controls of all trucks. These sanctions were finally temporarily lifted, waiting for the Parisian meeting.
“It’s not as we negotiate that we will put sanctions,” had defended Emmanuel Macron in front of the press, on the sidelines of COP26 in Glasgow, the United Kingdom. “The next hours are important hours,” had the French president assured. “We received first signals from the British authorities to accelerate trade. A response to the latest proposals of the French authorities is expected by Wednesday,” had stressed the French presidency on Monday.
In a manifestly appeasement concern, the Scottish trawler Cornelis-Gert-Jan, fixed in France for a week for caught more than two tons of unlicensed scallops, left the harbor of Le Havre on the end afternoon.
“In-depth discussions”
“The British government had, for its part,” greeted “the postponement of sanctions, saying to” congratulate France recognize that in-depth discussions are necessary to solve all the difficulties of the relationship between the United Kingdom and The EU “.
Under the Brexit Agreement, European fishermen can continue to work in some British waters as long as they can prove that they had before. But French and British compete with the nature and extent of the proof to be provided.
About a quarter of the French intakes in volume (about 20% in value) come from British waters, very fishy, which are at the origin of 650 million euros of annual sales for European fishermen.
Discussions on the subject took place Wednesday in Brussels between the United Kingdom and the European Commission, during which the first time was addressed the sensitive point of replacement vessels, namely the new French fishing vessels having taken The older place, according to a European source.
The British, who refused to take them into account, seem to have relaxed their position, but they want guarantees that their catches will not be superior to those of the boats they replaced, according to the same source.