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France threatens ‘reprisals’ over Brexit fishing deal

France on Tuesday threatened "reprisals" against Britain unless a post-Brexit deal on fishing rights is implemented, the latest sign of cross-Channel tensions over the highly sensitive sector.

France threatens 'reprisals' over Brexit fishing deal
French fishermen stand near a banner during a protest action against the delay in granting licenses to access British waters at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer on April 22nd. (Photo: Denis CHARLET / AFP)

French fishermen say they are being prevented from operating in British waters because of difficulties in obtaining licenses.

They began a protest movement last week by blockading trucks bringing fish from Britain to France, saying that only 22 boats out of 120 from the Boulogne-sur-Mer port had obtained a licence for British waters. 

“We are asking for the whole deal, nothing but the deal, and for as long as it has not been implemented… we will carry out reprisals in other sectors if it is necessary,” French Europe Minister Clément Beaune told the BFM Business channel on Tuesday.

British authorities have contested the French industry’s claims, saying last Friday that 87 French boats had received licenses for fishing within six to 12 nautical miles from the UK coast.

Fishing rights were one of the most complicated questions to negotiate in the Brexit deal agreed between Britain and the European Union for the UK’s full departure from the bloc on January 1st.

Britain made fishing rights a key issue in the negotiations, with control over access to its waters seen as a sign of British sovereignty.

READ ALSO: France warns UK: ‘Our fishermen are as important as yours’

Beaune said that French reprisals could be in the form of holding up approvals for British financial service operators to work in the EU.

“The United Kingdom is expecting quite a few authorisations from us for financial services. We won’t give any for as long as we don’t have guarantees on fishing and other issues,” he added.

“It’s give-give. Everyone needs to respect their commitments, if not we will be as brutal and difficult as is necessary as a partner,” he said.

The British fishing sector has also complained about red tape preventing the export of catches to the European continent.

In January, to protest delays to shipments, British exporters drove lorries to central London in a sign of tensions with the UK government of Boris Johnson.

Member comments

  1. Licenses for British financial service operators to work in the EU that bring in millions compared to a few fishermen that bring in, well fish. Says it all really.

  2. It’s the EU that has been trying to force financial services based in London to move to the EU by refusing ‘equivalence’. If they deny them registration, the business will stay in London. And so will the capital. Seems like a case of ‘do as I say or I’ll shoot myself in the head’. As for the French fishermen, they have to apply via the EU and many of them cannot meet their requirements.Consequently, the licence applications don’t even reach the UK single licensing authority.

  3. Clement Beaune is perhaps not the most convincing guy when threatening brutality and difficulty ?

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SCHOOLS

French teachers call school boycott day in streaming protest

French teaching unions are calling on parents to keep their children at home on Thursday, as part of a protest against plans to introduce academic streaming into schools.

French teachers call school boycott day in streaming protest

In protest against ‘streaming’ (groupes de niveaux), teachers’ unions and parent associations are calling on parents to keep their collège (aged 11-15) pupils home on Thursday.

They have named these actions opération collège mort (operation dead school) or opération collège désert (operation deserted school).

Teachers will technically would not be on strike – meaning they can accommodate pupils who could not stay home.

Unions are also calling for demonstrations in front of the entrances of schools, with several expected in the Bordeaux area, as well as in Seine-Saint-Denis and Paris.

The protests are about plans to introduce streaming or tracking of pupils – grouping them according to their academic abilities – for maths and French classes. At present streaming is not widespread in French schools, and the idea is a controversial one, with teaching unions saying that it undermines the principle of equality.

READ MORE: Why ‘streaming’ in French schools is causing controversy (and strikes)

There will also be a protest at 12pm on Thursday in front of the Prime Minister’s residence at Matignon in Paris.

So far, the actions have had varying support depending on the collège.

Last week, 25 Paris-based collèges participated in the opérations collège mort, after an appeal from the Federation of Parents’ Councils (FCPE), French daily Le Parisien estimated.

On March 11th, opérations collège mort saw 97 percent of pupils at the Raoul-Rebout collège in the Indre-et-Loire département absent, and prior to that 50 out of the 627 pupils at the Jacques-Prévert college in the Gironde département were absent during an opération mort on March 8th.

Why are people protesting?

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced plans to introduce streaming in December as part of a choc des savoirs (clash of knowledge) intended to help get mathematics and reading comprehension scores up.

The proposal was formalised in France’s Journal Officiel on Sunday, and starting September 2024 6ème and 5ème pupils (the first to years of collège) will be streamed in mathematics and French courses.

The plan has been met with outcry from teachers, teaching unions and parents who fear it will reinforce existing social inequality, with less advantaged students stigmatised and put into lower-level groups.

There are also concerns that sorting will not address greater issues within the school system, namely staff shortages and already overcrowded classrooms.

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