France threatens the UK if it does not respect the Brexit agreement on fisheries

The United Kingdom runs the risk that its access to the single market will be restricted if it does not respect the Brexit agreement regarding the granting of fishing licenses to fish in its jurisdictional waters, the French Secretary of State for Affairs said on Thursday. Europeans, Clément Beaune.

“If the British do not respect the agreement, they will not have free access to our market in the future,” Beaune warned in an interview on Thursday on channel France 2.

He explained that between January 4 and 6 there will be meetings with the European commissioners to define the procedure that France has asked Brussels to activate against the United Kingdom because it considers that it has not received the fishing licenses to which it is entitled.

The European Commission had given itself until December 10 to negotiate with London on this dispute and France, which had warned that that date implied an ultimatum, then indicated that it had obtained 1,034 licenses, but that it lacked another 74.

From there, he announced his intention to initiate a contentious procedure that, in the words of the Secretary of State, “is a signal that Europeans send to the United Kingdom” that may end in “retaliation such as customs and other duties.”

For him, “the important thing is that these sanctions are European.” One way of insisting that this licensing is not a bilateral crisis between Paris and London.

In fact, the French Secretary of State emphasized, in a message he sent in the direction of the new negotiating team with the European Union (EU) that replaces David Frost, who resigned last Saturday, that “the strategy that seeks to seek the division of the EU has never worked ”.

The Brexit agreement established that EU vessels could continue to fish in waters under British jurisdiction but on condition of obtaining licenses granted by London on the basis of rights acquired from having worked there in the past.

(With information from EFE)

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