French fishermen have rejected Britain's approval of more fishing licences as insufficient and promised new protests to disrupt traffic in Channel ports.
The fishing industry association for the northern Hauts de France region, which includes Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne, said the granting of 23 new licences by Britain fell far short of the 100 to which French boats were entitled. The association said there should be protests that will target British imports.
It gave no dates for the action but said it would be similar to the blocking of several hours on November 26 of sea traffic in Calais, the Breton port of Saint-Malo and Ouistreham in Normandy. The CRPMEM, the regional association of sea fishing, said it was deeply disappointed by the failure of the French government and the EU. It said that the new British licences made no difference. It said that the news exasperates fishermen in northern France, who feel that they are being trayed by the British government and abandoned by the European Commission, far from satisfying the sector.
The French fishing committee, an industry group, said it was disappointed. There was a impression that there was a real will in the European Commission to hit the table with a deadline, Jean-Luc Hall, director, said. He said that he hoped that the British would change their positions today. He said that the survival of our businesses depends on it. We want the commission to do what it said it would do, that it takes up the cases of the refused boats in the courts even if that doesn't suit them and the procedures take some time. President Macron s government gave a cautious welcome to the new licences, which were issued on the day of the expiry of a commission deadline for progress in the dispute. The government acknowledged that Britain had moved. It did not carry out a threat to open new dispute proceedings in Brussels over the weekend. It would continue to work to obtain additional 80 licences that it said should have been granted under the post-Brexit agreement. The new licences were agreed after British and EU officials agreed on an evidence-based approach to ensure that vessels can work in UK waters. The move was hailed by the commission as an important step in a long process towards implementing the Brexit accord.
Britain said that the agreement with Brussels ensures the sustainability of our fisheries, and that Britain is obstructing licences as part of a provocative hard line with Paris and the EU to distract attention from the economic and human problems that are suffering as a result of Brexit.
Britain said it was merely requiring French boats to prove that they had fished in British waters before Brexit, and that it was lacking evidence in the case of the rejected applications.
Clement Beaune, France's minister for Europe, expressed frustration on Friday over what he saw as the failure of Brussels to back its demands against Britain.
Boris Johnson did not accept the Friday deadline set by Brussels. He said that they have set one, but it is not one we are working on, he said on Thursday. In the same day, Macron pointed out fishing as one of a series of issues that Britain was failing to keep its word. The British government does not do what it says, he told a news conference.