(Bloomberg) —
The U.K. said it will trigger legal action against France within 48 hours unless a dispute over post-Brexit fishing rights is resolved, as the growing spat threatens to overshadow the United Nations’ climate summit.
Though the fishing rights at stake represent only a fraction of each countries’ economy, they have become a major flash point in their relationship following the U.K.’s departure from the European Union and was one of the biggest issues hanging over the Group of 20 summit in Rome over the weekend.
France has accused the U.K. of wrongly denying French trawlers’ access to British waters, and on Tuesday will introduce additional controls on goods arriving from Britain. It will also block British fishing boats from unloading their catches in France.
A Sunday meeting between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron in Rome failed to resolve the dispute, meaning the standoff is now bleeding into the COP26 climate talks hosted by the U.K.
“Stop threatening U.K. fishing vessels, stop threatening the Channel ports and accept that we are entirely within our rights to allocate the fishing licenses in line with the trade agreement,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Sky News on Monday, when asked what her message is for the French government.
Following the Johnson-Macron meeting, neither side could even agree on what was said. A Macron aide briefed that the two leaders would work together to find a way to deliver licenses to French boats ahead of the deadline, while Johnson’s spokesman said it was up to Paris to make the first move.
Climate Pressure
The French trade sanctions on the U.K. are set to coincide with the leaders’ final day at the climate summit Glasgow, Scotland — just as Johnson will be trying to pin down an international deal to tackle global warming on which he’s staked considerable political capital.
The Macron government says that 40% of the detailed French requests for licenses to fish in U.K. waters are still pending 10 months after the trade agreement was signed — and that requests from other EU members have all been processed.
The U.K. says it has granted 98% of license applications from EU vessels since Brexit, and that it regards the threats from France as violating the terms of the trade deal it struck with the EU after Brexit.
In addition to blocking U.K. trawlers, the French government has threatened to raise energy costs in the British Channel Islands, which are heavily reliant on electricity from France via an underseas cable.
Island Spat
The British isle of Jersey, which has its own sovereign government, has been making decisions on fishing licenses and has rejected 55 applications from French trawlers on the basis they didn’t have enough evidence to prove that they fished in Jersey’s waters historically.
The question is whether the Jersey and U.K. governments back down and give more fishing licenses over the next few days. On Sunday, Macron said France had proposed a new methodology for how French trawlers could prove they have access rights, and said France is waiting for the British response.
The dispute could yet be defused, even without a full resolution. France may agree to postpone its retaliatory measures if it deems progress is being made on the issue, or if Jersey or the U.K. make goodwill gestures such as issuing temporary fishing licenses, to be reviewed at a future date.
There was little sign of any goodwill between the sides on Monday.
Ian Gorst, Jersey’s external relations minister, said his government had “tumbled over ourselves” to be engaging and reasonable with France’s requests and would continue to consider evidence supporting fishing license applications. But he said France’s threats are “extremely frustrating.”
“It’s bordering on they’re just being silly,” he told Sky News.
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