France to seek EU legal action against UK over fishing rights
Paris is to ask the European Commission to open post-Brexit litigation proceedings against Britain over a long-running dispute on fishing licences for French boats in British waters.
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"In the coming days we will ask the European Commission to launch litigation for the licences we are entitled to," France's European affairs minister, Clément Beaune, said Friday.
His statement came after President Emmanuel Macron met fishing representatives and local officials.
French fishermen say Britain and the Channel Island of Jersey – a British crown dependency – are holding back on licences for French boats that had been allowed to ply their waters for years before Britain left the EU.
Rencontre ce matin avec @EmmanuelMacron sur les #licences : nous avons demandé au Président de continuer à se battre pour toutes les demandes, prioritaires et mises de côté, et de faire de l'après 2026 une priorité : les pêcheurs français doivent pouvoir continuer à travailler ! pic.twitter.com/9cr5bChh6O
— CNPMEM (@CNPMEM) December 17, 2021
Trade war with UK
The dispute has sparked the possibility of an all-out trade war, with fishermen in northern France vowing this week to step up protests and block British boats from French ports along the Channel coast.
Britain agreed to issue an additional 23 licences to French fishermen last Saturday, but France says it is entitled to some 80 more.
The European Union had set London a 10 December deadline to grant licences to dozens of French fishing boats under the post-Brexit trade accord signed last year, with Paris threatening European legal action if no breakthrough emerged.
Read also:
- France insists on more post-Brexit fishing licences from Britain
- No resolution of Franco-British fishing spat as EU deadline expires
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