Amid Condemnation and Threat, This Is How the Fishing Crisis Ignited the Dispute Between Britain and France

Tensions between France and Britain over fishing rights have been rising for months, especially after the United Kingdom did not issue licenses to some small French boats to operate in British waters.

The UK insists it has refused to grant licenses only to fishermen who have not provided supporting documents, but France argues that London is deliberately targeting its ships.

This prompted the two sides to launch several threats related to their mutual trade, which threatens to turn into an all-out trade war between the two countries.

It is expected that official talks between the two sides will be held on November 4, with the aim of settling the dispute, but the risk of further escalation remains, especially after an escalation and threat from both sides, political circles ruled out that there would be signs of a breakthrough in this conflict soon.

Threatening and Denouncing

On October 31, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a meeting while attending the G20 Summit in Rome.

The two leaders discussed escalating tensions over the granting of fishing licenses, but it is noteworthy that they held two separate press conferences at the end of the meeting, according to a report by the American AP Agency.

“I don't want any escalation, but we must take things seriously, I hope I don't take retaliatory measures…but that we come to an agreement,” Macron said.

“The UK's position has not changed,” Johnson said.

A day after meeting with Johnson in Rome, and exchanging smiles, Macron threatened to “prevent British fishing vessels from entering their ports, increasing inspections of British exports, tightening controls on trucks, and imposing customs and hygiene controls, starting Tuesday, November 2, 2021; unless London grants licenses to French boats to fish in British waters,” according to Reuters.

“A package of other measures is under study, without ruling out the possibility of a review of the energy supply to the UK,” Macron added.

France also threatened to cut off the electricity to the island of Jersey, which gets 95% of its electricity from France if it doesn't allow French fishermen to work in its waters.

On its part, the UK threatened to take legal action in the dispute over fishing licenses by resorting to European authorities, and to sue France for what Britain considers a violation of international law relating to the Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which regulates the relationship between the European Union and Britain.

Johnson also announced that his country's authorities had issued more than 100 licenses over the past week, that is, since the first French threat on October 27.

“We had issued licenses to all those boats that had submitted the correct paperwork and would not change our approach in the wake of the French threats,” Johnson added.

This forced Macron to soften his tone and retreat from his threats, he also stressed the importance of the coming hours, he called for more talks to settle the fishing row between France, Britain and the European Commission, in a move welcomed by London.

On his part, the British Brexit Secretary David Frost said that he had accepted an offer made by the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Clement Bonn to hold a meeting on 04 November, to discuss the fishing row and controversial post-Brexit trade arrangements and especially the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The fishing battle raged between France and Britain after the French authorities seized a British fishing boat that was fishing in French waters, another fishing boat was expelled, under the pretext that they did not have valid permits.

What is the Dispute?

Under the Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), French fishermen are allowed to fish between 6 and 12 nautical miles from the UK shore and off the coast of the Channel Islands, which includes Jersey and Guernsey until 2026, if they obtain a license from Britain.

To be granted this license, it is necessary to prove that they have fished in UK waters before, that is, before the UK left the European Union, but the two countries disagree about exactly which evidence is required and which must be presented, which is the core of the dispute between the two countries.

France says the conditions imposed by the United Kingdom and its islands of Jersey and Guernsey are unfair to small boats that do not normally have GPS devices to prove its activity in UK waters in the past, Britain says it has the right to demand the proof it wants.

French government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, said: “We have so far been granted 210 permits to fish in the area where we are allowed to fish, despite having requested 454 permits.”

According to the British newspaper, The Times, “The UK says it has issued permits to 1,673 EU vessels to fish in its exclusive economic zone, which is 98% of EU applications, but this figure includes licenses to fish in Britain's exclusive economic zone between 12 and 200 nautical miles from its coast, which are automatically granted under TCA terms.”

France insists that it is granted 90%, and that the remaining 10% is mainly for French boats,” the newspaper said.

According to Reuters, “Macron seeks to implicate the EU in the dispute between France and Britain over fishing and accuses Britain of deliberately targeting his country and violating the TCA agreement.”

In addition, Paris and London exchange accusations over the exploitation of the fishing row for internal political purposes.

London suspects that Macron is fueling the conflict with it in order to achieve domestic political gains ahead of next year's presidential elections, in order to purify himself he had to take care of the interest of the French fishermen.

Meanwhile, Paris says Johnson is targeting France to distract from the problems of Britain's exit from the European Union.

Commenting on that, Dr. Rami Khalifa al-Ali, a researcher in political philosophy at the University of Paris, said in a statement to Al-Ghad channel: “The fishing crisis between France and Britain will be resolved through talks between the two sides, according to 3 factors behind this breakthrough.”

“The first factor is that Macron did not have much support from the European Union and the European Commission on this crisis, this forced him to soften his threats and negotiate individually with the British side to find a solution,” he explained.

“The second factor is that when the American side entered the line, consultations took place between US Presidents Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to reach a solution that satisfies all parties,” al-Ali added.

“The third factor is that the options were not many for Macron in case the escalation continued, this prompted him to work on resolving the crisis with the British side to preserve the common interests between the two countries,” The researcher pointed out.

Successive Crises

It is noteworthy that the disputes between Paris and London were not managed in this convulsive and violent manner before the nuclear submarine deal between the United States and Australia, in which Britain played a negative role against France, depriving Paris of a valuable contract to supply conventional submarines to Canberra.

The cancellation of that deal caused great tension on the level of relations between Paris, on the one hand, and London on the other hand, as France described what happened as a stab in the back and accused Britain of “opportunism and negligence.”

In addition to the “illegal immigrant” crisis, which is considered one of the explosive crises between the two countries, especially as they cross the English Channel from France to Britain.

London announced in early September its intention to return migrant boats heading to it from France, Britain also froze part of the 62.7 million euros it had promised to finance the patrols in northern France, and it considered that France did not make additional efforts to prevent crossings to Britain.

On July 16, the British Ministry of Health decided to subject people coming from France, even if they had fully received the vaccines against corona, for a 10-day quarantine. Britain justified its decision at that time by the spread of Beta variant infections in France.

Last March, a crisis erupted between France and Britain over coronavirus vaccines, because of the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca's failure to provide the contracted quantity of vaccines with the countries of the European Union, and to give it priority to Britain.