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France urges tougher EU action against UK on fishing

PARIS: France on Tuesday piled pressure on Britain over fishing rights, calling for the EU to get tougher on the UK and warning bilateral cooperation could be at risk.
With tensions between London and Paris in the aftermath of Brexit escalating by the day, Paris also warned it could cut the power supply to the British crown dependencies of the Channel Islands.
Britain has refused to grant all the fishing licences sought by French boats as part of a post-Brexit access deal, leaving Paris furious and fishermen worried for their livelihoods.
A sequence of statements from Paris indicated that French patience on the issue had run out as bilateral disagreements on a host of issues seem to run out of control.
France “will not stand for this”, European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune told the Europe 1 broadcaster.
“For example, you could imagine the Channel Islands, where the United Kingdom depends on us for its energy supply…,” Beaune said.
He did not expand, but the warning echoes an earlier threat by Fisheries Minister Annick Girardin who said in May that the fishing row could have an impact on “the power supply by undersea cable” from France to Jersey.
Channel Islands Jersey and Guernsey are close to France which supplies them with electricity.
– ‘Keep their word’ –
Later on Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean Castex told parliament that bilateral cooperation between France and Britain was at risk in the dispute. The two countries work together on issues like illegal migration in the Channel.
Castex said that he had asked the EU Commission to take a tougher stance on London to ensure that Britain complied with its commitments under the terms of its accord on the British exit from the EU.
“If that does not work we will go the (Brexit deal) arbitration panel to get the British to keep their word and, more broadly, we will question all the conditions of the implementation of accords with the EU and also, if necessary, the bilateral cooperation we have with the UK,” Castex warned.
He described the situation as “intolerable”.
France announced last week that it would quickly lay out retaliatory measures over fishing rights “towards the British and also our neighbours in Jersey”.
Fishing rights for EU boats in UK waters were a key stumbling block to negotiations for a post-Brexit trade accord between London and Brussels after Britain’s exit from the bloc on January 1, 2021.
The dispute flared in May when a flotilla of around 50 French trawlers massed in front of the Saint Helier harbour on Jersey, a self-governing territory that along with fellow crown dependency Guernsey depends on Britain for its defence.
The protest sparked a tense standoff that even drew in French and British military vessels.
Since then, French fishermen have applied for the new access licences but complain of onerous paperwork and a requirement to prove they had fished in British and Jersey waters before Brexit, not always an easy task, especially for smaller boats.
Last week, Britain said it would grant just 12 out of 47 applications for new licences for small EU boats, while Jersey issued 64 full and 31 temporary licences but refused 75 applications.
“Our patience has clear limits,” Beaune said. “We’ve negotiated calmly and nicely for nine months now, that’s enough.”
Referring to the UK government, the minister added: “They think they can live all by themselves and, what’s more, lash out at Europe. And because that’s not working they raise the stakes and become aggressive.”
Last week, Girardin said London may be playing hardball on fishing in order to press its demands on other thorny post-Brexit discussions such as migrants seeking to cross the Channel.
Paris is also furious with London over its role in a Indo-Pacific security pact with Australia and the US that sidelined France and led Paris to accuse London of “constant opportunism”.

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M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.