COP26 Climate Summit: UK, France trade barbs over fishing row ahead of crucial meet

As the world’s leading scientists and environmentalists asked UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and France’s leader Emmanuel Macron to end the post-Brexit bitter fishing spat ahead of the crucial COP26 climate meeting, tensions have escalated between Britain and France as they each accused the other of a breach in the English Channel with respect to the post-Brexit trade agreement struck with European Union.

France has lately questioned UK’s international credibility over the fishing rights row, while Britain stated that it was “actively considering” launching legal action if France did not scrap the blockade of its fishing boats from the ports and shunned stern checks on the British catches. 

Fearing that the significant issues at the meeting might be neglected due to the Anglo-French verbal standoff, scientists and environmental activists are now calling the two countries to declare an immediate ceasefire to the longstanding row. As the UK prepared to host government leaders from over 120 countries of the world, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson asserted that the meeting in Glasgow will witness “a moment of truth” as he added, that the “question everyone is asking is whether we seize this moment or let it slip away,” The Guardian reported. But the experts speculate talks might hit dead-end when it comes to the UK and French governments, as they each have been engaged in launching scathing attacks, with the UK threatening to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol that could intensify the trade conflict with the EU, spiralling the situation for worse. 

“If there is a breach of the (Brexit) treaty or we think there is a breach of the treaty then we will do what is necessary to protect British interests,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson told British broadcasters in Rome, as he and Macron both prepared to attend the key meet, Associated Press reports. 

France threatens UK of 'restricting all energy supplies' to the Channel Islands 

Both the maritime nations, UK and France have been arguing over the post-Brexit arrangement reached with the 27-nation bloc about who reserves the right for fishing in the English Channel. While the UK exited the EU and now controls most of the territorial waters, France has accused the UK of stopping its vessels and denying them permits to fish in waters where they routinely worked. Meanwhile, the UK argues that over 98 per cent of applications from EU vessels have been approved and the few dozen French boats that are being blocked carried insufficient paperwork. The two longtime allies have locked horns over defending their national interests, and the dispute escalated this week after France caught a Scottish-registered scallop dredger fishing without a license, detaining its captain Le Havre. France, furthermore, threatened to block the British boats crossing the English Channel and restrict all energy supplies to the Channel Islands. 

(Image: AP)