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France details ‘retaliation’ against UK in post-Brexit fishing dispute

France has laid out detailed measures of 'retaliation' against Britain from November 2nd in the deepening row over granting of post-Brexit fishing licences to French fishermen.

Published: 27 October 2021 14:38 CEST
Updated: 28 October 2021 09:03 CEST
French customs officers checking arrivals at the border.
French customs officers checking arrivals at the border. Photo: Pascal Pochard Casablanca/AFP

The measures would include “systematic customs and sanitary checks on products brought to France and a ban on landing seafood,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters.

Speaking after the regular Wednesday meeting of the Council of Ministers, Attal told reporters that several meetings had been held within the government to plan a list of measures in response to the post-Brexit fishing dispute.

The measures were later published by Europe Minister Clément Beaune, who tweeted: “French and EU fishermen must not be the adjustment variable of Brexit.

“We are announcing retaliatory measures to protect our fishermen, starting on November 2nd. The dialogue remains open but we will always defend our interests.”

The measures that France intends to take from November 2nd are;

  • A ban on the landing of British fishing vessels in designated ports
  • Reinforcement of border customs and health checks 
  • Systematic checks of British fishing boats
  • Reinforcement of checks on all lorries travelling to and from the UK 

Beaune added that a second set of measures are “being prepared” and do not exclude reducing energy supplies to the UK.

Speaking to CNews on Thursday morning, Beaune said there would be strict and systematic checks on paperwork of British boats with “no tolerance, no exceptions” for those who did not have the correct documents, adding that the same regime would be imposed on lorries going to or from the UK.

He said: “We have been extremely patient, our fishermen have been responsible. That is over, from November 2nd we will begin to take retaliatory measures.”

EXPLAINED Why are France and the UK fighting about fish?

Also on Thursday, extra checks on British boats fishing in French waters were carried out, with one trawler detained and taken to Le Havre, accused of fishing for scallops without a licence.

Andrew Brown, director of sustainability and public affairs at Macduff Shellfish based at Mintlaw in Aberdeenshire in northeastern Scotland, confirmed to AFP that its trawler was detained while fishing for scallops.

“It does seem to be a misunderstanding. We believe we have been fishing legally in French waters,” Brown said by telephone.

Access to the waters is “a little bit complicated”, but they opened for fishing earlier this month, he said.

“I suspect it is politically motivated”, he added, since “we’ve not had this issue” previously.

The latest spat between the neighbours has been caused by licensing procedures for EU fishing boats wanting to operate in British waters after Brexit.

France has been incensed by the rejection of dozens of French boats by Britain, as well as by the self-governing Channels islands of Jersey and Guernsey, which depend on London for defence and foreign affairs.

French customs checks have the potential to seriously slow down trade to and from the UK.

British fishermen are also highly dependent on French ports where much of their catch is landed and processed.

Under the post-Brexit deal on fishing, EU fishermen wishing to access British seas had to apply for new licences which would be granted providing they could prove that they had worked in British waters in previous years.

Britain has granted nearly 1,700 licences to EU boats to fish in waters classed as being part of its exclusive economic zone, meaning those 12-200 nautical miles from the coast.

The tension is over licences to operate in Britain’s fish-rich territorial waters, which lie 6-12 nautical miles from the coast, as well as the waters close to Jersey.

London has issued 100 licences to French boats for its territorial waters, while 75 have been rejected, according to figures from the beginning of October.

For Jersey, 111 permanent licences and 31 provisional licences have been issued, while 75 boats have been rejected.

Member comments

  1. Fascinating. France is taking unilateral action in ‘enforcement’ of an EU/UK Agreement. If the EU endorses that action then it is in breach of the Agreement and UK is entitled to institute retaliatory tariffs. French wine could be just about to get very expensive.

      1. Fortunately, no need as the Trade and Co-operation Agreement with the EU provides for disputes to be settled by arbitration.

          1. It’s always possible for either party to give 9 months notice to dissolve the Agreement. That would, of course, mean no licences at all.

  2. After Beaune’s previous threats this weak measure shows the true nature of the issue. The French signed up to an fishing agreement that no longer suits them. The french gov know fishermen in small boats do not have trackers (or turn them off), why on earth did they sign up to an agreement that requires the fisherman to show proof?

  3. When I saw the agreement that was signed, it was obvious there was going to be a trade war and have said so in previous comments.
    However when you start doing things like stopping food and electricity – these are not sanctions – these are acts of war.
    The French Government have done nothing to reduce the size of the French fishing fleet. knowing fine well that the new quotas can not sustain the existing fleet.
    Inaction at the highest level leads to reaction by the ordinary French citizen.
    French Europe Minister Clement Beaune should be putting his own house in order before trying to sort out someone else’s

    1. I should also add that if French Europe Minister Clement Beaune spent more time helping French fisherman with the paperwork to substantiate their claim and checking the validity of the claim, then perhaps that is a more sensible way of carrying this forward

    2. However well or badly drafted, the trade agreement is a UK/EU agreement and the French have no entitlement to stick their oar in. If they want the kind of sovereignty they seem to think they still have then they will have to leave the EU and become a country again.

  4. UK is rejecting fishing licenses (from people who fished in the area their entire lives) based on extremely precise and essentially bad faith scrutiny of their license applications – is it a surprise that the French are mad?

    And their response is pretty ingenious – they know that a huge proportion of British exporters still aren’t ready for Brexit and don’t declare things properly, and all it takes to retaliate is to fully enforce the same agreement that the British have signed up for. Tit for tat.

    1. According to Jersey fishermen( as reported in The Jersey Post ), licenses have already been issued to twice as many French boats as historically fished in their waters and they’re not happy.

      1. The Fishermen on both sides of the channel had sorted the fishing out between themselves for many years without governmental intervention, then the regulation that now has surfaced is hitting at the wrong fishermen on both sides. There are other countries fishing still and they are not seen or needing licences fishing the grounds between UK and EU without anyone stopping these massive trawlers decimating the fishing grounds. whilst we were in the EU these fishing grounds were protected Now they are not as everyone is focused on the battle between EU (France) and UK.

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FRENCH ELECTIONS

French election breakdown: TV clash, polling latest and ‘poo’ Le Pen

From the polls latest to the first big TV election clash, via a lot of questions about the French Constitution and the president's future - here's the situation 17 days on from Emmanuel Macron's shock election announcement.

Published: 26 June 2024 08:15 CEST
French election breakdown: TV clash, polling latest and 'poo' Le Pen

During the election period we will be publishing a bi-weekly ‘election breakdown’ to help you keep up with the latest developments. You can receive these as an email by going to the newsletter section here and selecting subscribe to ‘breaking news alerts’.

It’s now been 17 days since Macron’s surprise call for snap parliamentary elections, and four days until the first round of voting.

TV debates

The hotly-anticipated first TV debate of the election on Tuesday night turned out to be an ill-tempered affair with a lot of interruptions and men talking over each other.

The line of the night went to the left representative Manuel Bompard – who otherwise struggled to make much of an impact – when he told far-right leader Jordan Bardella (whose Italian ancestors migrated to France several generations back): “When your personal ancestors arrived in France, your political ancestors said exactly the same thing to them. I find that tragic.”

But perhaps the biggest question of all is whether any of this matters? The presidential election debate between Macron and Marine Le Pen back in 2017 is widely credited with influencing the campaign as Macron exposed her contradictory policies and economic illiteracy.

However a debate ahead of the European elections last month between Bardella and prime minister Gabriel Attal was widely agreed to have been ‘won’ by Attal, who also managed to expose flaws and contradictions in the far right party’s policies. Nevertheless, the far-right went on to convincingly beat the Macronists at the polls.

Has the political scene simply moved on so that Bardella’s brief and fact-light TikTok videos convince more people than a two-hour prime-time TV debate?

You can hear the team from The Local discussing all the election latest on the Talking France podcast – listen here or on the link below

Road to chaos

Just over two weeks ago when Macron called this election, he intended to call the bluff of the French electorate – did they really want a government made up of Marine Len Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party?

Well, latest polling suggests that a large portion of French people want exactly that, and significantly fewer people want to continue with a Macron government.

With the caveat that pollsters themselves say this is is a difficult election to call, current polling suggests RN would take 35 percent of the vote, the leftist alliance Nouveau Front Populaire 30 percent and Macron’s centrists 20 percent.

This is potentially bad news for everyone, as those figures would give no party an overall majority in parliament and would instead likely usher in an era of political chaos.

The questions discussed in French conversation and media have now moved on from ‘who will win the election?’ to distinctly more technical concerns like – what exactly does the Constitution say about the powers of a president without a government? Can France have a ‘caretaker government’ in the long term? Is it time for a 6th republic?.

The most over-used phrase in French political discourse this week? Sans précédent (unprecedented).

Démission

From sans précédent to sans président – if this election leads to total chaos, will Macron resign? It’s certainly being discussed, but he says he will not.

For citizens of many European parliamentary democracies it seems virtually automatic that the president would resign if he cannot form a government, but the French system is very different and several French presidents have continued in post despite being obliged to appoint an opponent as prime minister.

READ ALSO Will Macron resign in case of an election disaster?

The only president of the Fifth Republic to resign early was Charles de Gaulle – the trigger was the failure of a referendum on local government, but it may be that he was simply fed up; he was 78 years old and had already been through an attempted coup and the May 1968 general strike which paralysed the country. He died a year after leaving office.

Caca craft

She might be riding high in the polls, but not everyone is enamoured of Le Pen, it seems, especially not in ‘lefty’ eastern Paris – as seen by this rather neatly crafted Marine Le Pen flag stuck into a lump of dog poo left on the pavement.

Thanks to spotter Helen Massy-Beresford, who saw this in Paris’s 20th arrondissement.

You can find all the latest election news HERE, or sign up to receive these election breakdowns as an email by going to the newsletter section here and selecting subscribe to ‘breaking news alerts’.

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