Fishing: Paris goes to litigation with the United Kingdom

The government announced it after an interview with Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, with stakeholders in the sector and elected officials from the regions concerned. After eleven months of a standoff, which had followed Brexit, to obtain the granting of fishing licenses in British waters, the executive will finally ask the European Commission to initiate a dispute with the United Kingdom . It is a procedure which could last for many months during which the fishermen still deprived of a license will not be able to exercise their activity normally. The government decided in parallel to “support plan” for those who stay at the dock – in the literal sense of the expression.

The agreement signed at the end of 2020 between London and Brussels, allowed European fishermen to continue working in British waters … on condition of proving that they were already doing so before the divorce between Great Britain and the European Union. But for nearly a year, Paris and London have been quarreling over the number of licenses and how to obtain them. “Seventy-three licenses are still pending”, according to the Minister of the Sea, after obtaining more than a thousand authorizations. Annick Girardin promised that discussions would continue with London and the Channel Islands, “to try to tear off” the latest licenses, but the government seems to have already noted that not all of them will be granted.

This is reflected in the other decision taken this Friday: to set up compensation for fishermen who will not obtain a license. “The president wishes that in terms of supporting fishermen”, declared the Minister of the Sea, “we are precise about individual help, and that we do hand-stitching, case by case, basin by basin”, also announcing that a “Mr. escort” would soon be named.

British fishery resources are vital for the sector in France, since a quarter of catches outside the Mediterranean come from it. For the fishermen of the European Union, it is 650 million euros which are withdrawn each year from the sales of these catches in the fish-rich waters of Great Britain. It is therefore at the European level that the government has chosen to bring this bilateral dispute, two weeks before the start of the French presidency of the Union. “It’s a European problem”, insisted the Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune, hoping that Brussels will maintain a “political pressure” on the file.

The battles to be fought will remain numerous beyond the problem of the last licenses: even if these were acquired, discussions are underway on fishing quotas, authorized species, or even the techniques used.