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The Government of Emmanuel Macron would ask the European Union (EU) to initiate legal action against the United Kingdom after not issuing more licenses for French fishermen before the deadline expired, which ended on Friday at midnight, according to an official. French. After London’s departure from the EU, access to British waters requires obtaining a permit, but the Boris Johnson Administration has ignored several calls from the bloc.
The United Kingdom and France feed one of their largest disputes after Brexit: fishing licenses. The deadline set by the European Commission (EC) for the British government to grant licenses to dozens of French fishing boats expired on Friday, December 10, without a breakthrough and Paris is threatening legal action from the EU bloc.
France affirms that 104 of its ships still lack permits to operate in British waters and the English Channel, which should have been granted in compliance with the agreements signed a year ago, in the framework of the departure of the British from the European Union .
European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune also accused British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of trying, unsuccessfully, to isolate France in this dispute.
“If the UK grants a few dozen additional licenses today as a show of goodwill we will take that into account,” said Beaune when the ultimatum was hours away.
However, London ignored the deadline and the Foreign Minister announced that if the stalemate on this matter persists, his country will ask the EC to initiate the retaliation process, as it had warned.
“If they stand firm, then we will ask the European Commission to initiate a legal complaint,” Beaune said.
“This is a technical process based on evidence rather than deadlines.”
The British Government has already denied the intention to discriminate against French ships and justifies that many vessels have not been able to deliver the necessary documentation to qualify for a license.
“This is a technical process based on evidence rather than deadlines,” stressed a spokesman for Boris Johnson’s cabinet.
On December 2, the island of Guernsey, dependent on the British crown, approved new permanent fishing licenses for 43 French vessels, but that amount has not been enough.
“Our position remains that vessels must provide sufficient evidence of historical fishing activity to receive a license,” added the British Government spokesman.
After Brexit, access to British waters requires a permit and vessels must prove that they already fished there at least between 2012 and 2016.
However, this is a difficult requirement for smaller or older vessels to meet, as they generally do not have Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and therefore cannot prove their fishing history in the area.
Fishing rights plagued talks about the divorce between London and Brussels for years, but the two countries have been involved in different disputes throughout 2021. Among them, the migratory flow of people crossing the English Channel, trade pacts after Brexit and the AUKUS defense agreement between the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, with which a million-dollar contract for the sale of submarines from Paris to Canberra was sunk.
“The problem with the British government is that it does not do what it says,” French President Emmanuel Macron told a news conference on Thursday, just weeks after accusing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of having a focus. ” not serious “to address migration.
These issues, added to the discussions over fishing licenses, continue to poison relations between France and the United Kingdom, which are going through one of their most tense periods.
With Reuters and AFP
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