SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

French and British agree to hold more talks over post-Brexit fishing row

Britain and France on Thursday agreed to hold more talks next week to solve a row on fishing rights that has threatened to turn into a post-Brexit trade war, after senior ministers met in Paris.

French fishing crews off the coast of Jersey
French fishing crews off the coast of Jersey. Photo: Sameer Al Doumy/AFP

Although there was no indication of a breakthrough after Brexit minister David Frost met French Europe Minister Clément Beaune, the desire to keep talking signalled a renewed interest in dialogue.

Beaune said he he had been “happy to receive Lord Frost in Paris to relaunch the necessary dialogue and ensure implementation of agreements”.

However after the meeting, the French side said there were still “significant differences”.

“Today we did not resolve the question of fishing licences,” Beaune told reporters, adding that Paris still wanted to “give a chance” to dialogue even if “all the options are open and all the options are possible”.

Speaking after the meeting, a UK government spokesman said: “They discussed the range of difficulties arising from the application of the agreements between the UK and the EU. Both sides set out their positions and concerns,” adding they “expect to speak again early next week”.

Frost will now travel on to Brussels for talks with European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic on Friday, the spokesperson added.

The dispute over post-Brexit fishing rights has strained already troubled relations between Paris and London following Britain’s exit from the European Union and has threatened to escalate into a full-blown trade war.

READ ALSO Why are France and the UK fighting over fish?

While British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday made it clear that London’s position had not changed there are signs both sides favour diplomacy to avoid the situation worsening.

French government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Wednesday emphasised that “all options are on the table” even after Macron put off implementing trade sanctions to give the talks a chance.

France has threatened to ban British boats from unloading their catches at French ports and to subject all British imports to inspections.

Under a deal agreed by Britain and the EU late last year, European fishing vessels can continue to ply UK waters near to the coast if they operated there in the past.

But Paris says dozens of French boats have had their applications to fish off the coast of the UK and the UK crown dependency of Jersey rejected.

The total volumes affected are tiny in terms of overall France-UK bilateral trade.

In the run-up to the talks, Frost tweeted official UK figures which London maintains show almost all licences requested by French fishing vessels have been issued, contrary to statements by French officials.

The Local’s columnist John Lichfield takes a closer look at the numbers in the Twitter thread below.

Member comments

  1. The EU approved the methodology for granting licences. If France thinks something fishy is going on they should take it up with them. My guess is that they have and that’s why they’ve backed down from all those silly threats. Meanwhile French trawlers are being put up for sale.

    1. They have not backed down but agreed to hold off for more “talks”. The hand is still poised on the switch.😛

  2. John Lichfield’s twitter feed gives a clear analysis (debunking) of Frost’s diingenuous use of misleading statistics. Sadly typical of the Johnson government. Which is what the dispute is really about – can France and the EU trust anything the UK government says or says it will do on brexit? The evidence is not there, so far. But it suits Johnson to keep an EU dispute going so he can continue to blame it for the problems brexit is causing the UK. For a UK citizen in France, it’s embarrassing.

    1. Speak for yourself, I’m also a British citizen in France and it’s not in the least bit embarrassing, the whole episode is transparent political posturing by Macron to secure votes.

      1. I’m a French citizen on a silly blog site and the only people that should be embarrassed by the whole said saga are the court jester and the British Government. This whole sad saga is about peoples livelihoods which seems to have been forgotten in the press especially the British guttersnipe press which now seems to include The Times. The French fishermen have fished the area around îles anglo-normandes for generations without problems and had a good working relationship with the local fishermen until British bureaucracy reared it’s ugly head. These are not deep sea trawlers but small one man operations that have fished these waters before the Duke of Normandy taught you English how to behave. It’s all very well for a politician saying the talks were fruitful but try explaining that to someone trying to put food on the family table. I can see more trouble ahead and the sales of generators going up.👿

        1. Boo hoo, Boggy ! I’m afraid the French fishermen were over-promised when M. Beaune said they would not pay the price of Brexit. British fishermen paid the price when UK joined the CFP and French fishermen will pay the price for Britain leaving . C’est la vie !

          1. ‘French fishermen will pay the price for Britain leaving’. Perhaps. We shall see. Macron needs the fishers’ votes and Johnson uses fishing as an icon of brexit, so the stakes are high. But inescapable facts are that the EU is 5 times bigger than the UK economically, and the UK needs its trade with the EU more than the EU needs the UK’s, so I know who I would bet on gaining the advantage in a negotiation. (And I think the last 5 years of negotiations demonstrates that.)

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

President Emmanuel Macron warned that the policies of his far-right and hard-left opponents could lead to ‘civil war’, as France prepared for its most divisive election in decades.

Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

French politics were plunged into turmoil when Macron called snap legislative elections after his centrist party was trounced by the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in a European vote earlier this month.

Weekend polls suggested the RN would win 35-36 percent in the first round on Sunday, ahead of a left-wing alliance on 27-29.5 percent and Macron’s centrists in third on 19.5-22 percent.

A second round of voting will follow on July 7th in constituencies where no candidate takes more than 50 percent in the first round.

Speaking on the podcast Generation Do It Yourself, Macron, 46, denounced both the RN as well as the hard-left France Unbowed party.

He said the far-right “divides and pushes towards civil war”, while the hard-left La France Insoumise, which is part of the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, proposes “a form of communitarianism”, adding that “civil war follows on from that, too”.

Reacting to Macron’s comments, far-right leader Jordan Bardella told French news outlet M6: “A President of the Republic should not say that. I want to re-establish security for all French people.”

Bardella, the RN’s 28-year-old president, earlier Monday said his party was ready to govern as he pledged to curb immigration and tackle cost-of-living issues.

“In three words: we are ready,” Bardella told a news conference as he unveiled the RN’s programme.

READ ALSO What would a far-right prime minister mean for foreigners in France?

Bardella has urged voters to give the eurosceptic party an outright majority to allow it to implement its anti-immigration, law-and-order programme.

“Seven long years of Macronism has weakened the country,” he said, vowing to boost purchasing power, “restore order” and change the law to make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.

He reiterated plans to tighten borders and make it harder for children born in France to foreign parents to gain citizenship.

Bardella added that the RN would focus on “realistic” measures to curb inflation, primarily by cutting energy taxes.

He also promised a disciplinary ‘big bang’ in schools, including a ban on mobile phones and trialling the introduction of school uniforms, a proposal previously put forward by Macron.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal of Macron’s Renaissance party poured scorn on the RN’s economic programme, telling Europe 1 radio the country was “headed straight for disaster” in the event of an RN victory.

On Tuesday, Attal will go head-to-head with Bardella and the leftist Manuel Bompard in a TV debate.

On foreign policy, Bardella said the RN opposed sending French troops and long-range missiles to Ukraine – as mooted by Macron – but would continue to provide logistical and material support.

He added that his party, which had close ties to Russia before its invasion of Ukraine, would be “extremely vigilant” in the face of Moscow’s attempts to interfere in French affairs.

Macron insisted that France would continue to support Ukraine over the long term as he met with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

“We will continue to mobilise to respond to Ukraine’s immediate needs,” he said alongside Stoltenberg at the Elysee Palace.

The election is shaping up as a showdown between the RN and the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire, which is dominated by the hard-left La France Insoumise.

Bardella claimed the RN, which mainstream parties have in the past united to block, was now the “patriotic and republican” choice faced with what he alleged was the anti-Semitism of Mélenchon’s party.

La France Insoumise, which opposes Israel’s war in Gaza and refused to label the October 7th Hamas attacks as ‘terrorism’, denies the charges of anti-Semitism.

In calling an election in just three weeks Macron hoped to trip up his opponents and catch them unprepared.

But analysts have warned the move could backfire if the deeply unpopular president is forced to share power with a prime minister from an opposing party.

RN powerhouse Marine Le Pen, who is bidding to succeed Macron as president, has called on him to step aside if he loses control of parliament.

Macron has insisted he will not resign before the end of his second term in 2027 but has vowed to heed voters’ concerns.

Speaking on Monday, Macron once again defended his choice to call snap elections.

“It’s very hard. I’m aware of it, and a lot of people are angry with me,” he said on the podcast. “But I did it because there is nothing greater and fairer in a democracy than trust in the people.”

SHOW COMMENTS