Stranded fisheries dispute: London and Paris postpone agreement

Stuck fishing dispute
London and Paris postpone agreement

A comment on ongoing negotiations could hardly be more minimalistic. In the Franco-British dispute over fishing licenses, both sides have “expressed their positions and concerns,” it said. London and Paris seem far from reaching an agreement.

In the dispute over fishing licenses between France and Great Britain, it does not appear that there has yet been a breakthrough. After a meeting between Britain’s Brexit representative David Frost and the French Secretary of State for Europe Clément Beaune in Paris, the government in London only announced that both sides had “presented their positions and concerns”. Beaune had previously stressed that he was looking forward to resuming the necessary dialogue and ensuring the implementation of the treaties.

In the dispute over fishing licenses in the English Channel, which lies between the two countries, France accuses Great Britain of not adhering to the Brexit agreements and of refusing French fishermen licenses, contrary to the agreement. London denies the allegations. It is about a few dozen boats that have not received a license due to a lack of documents. A French ultimatum with threatened punitive measures had Paris suspended due to ongoing talks on Monday.

According to the London communication, the meeting addressed “a number of problems arising from the implementation of the UK-EU agreements”. The dialogue should continue at the beginning of next week. A meeting between Frost and EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic in Brussels is already planned for Friday. The main issue here is the dispute over the Brexit regulations for Northern Ireland.

It is unclear whether Great Britain made concessions in return for the temporary withdrawal of the sanctions threats. Frost told Sky News that no new licenses had been issued in the run-up to the meeting. France’s deputy Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, on the other hand, spoke on the Europe 1 channel of 49 licenses that had been issued by London on Monday.

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