France to seek European Union legal action over fishing dispute with UK

In a fresh escalation over the post-Brexit deal, France on Friday announced that it will be seeking a European Union legal action against the United Kingdom over the months-long, unresolved fishing dispute. According to AP, the decision was announced after a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and a delegation of French fishermen at the Elysee presidential palace. Following the meeting, European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said that Paris is going to ask for a meeting of the EU-UK partnership council, which is a political body meant to handle post-Brexit issues.

“We will also ask, in the coming days, the European Commission to initiate judicial proceedings for licenses we are entitled to get,” Beaune told reporters after the Elysee meeting.

It is to mention that France has been urging the UK to grant permits to 73 French fishing boats. Last month, the EU had also asked Britain to resolve the expanding rift over the matter adhering to the provisions of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA), which is a post-Brexit deal between the EU and Britain. However, the row between the two neighbouring countries has expanded as the UK has repeatedly refused to recognise the deadline and said that it has already provided permits to "nearly 1,700 EU vessels to fish" in the Channel waters.

Post-Brexit fishing row

The UK licenses have become the centre of the dispute following Britain's split with the EU last year. Earlier, French fishermen could fish deep inside British waters. However, following Brexit, the fishermen need a special license from the British government or the self-governing British Crown dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey to fish in certain areas. France has said that it has obtained 93% of the licenses it requested. But on Friday Clement Beaune said that it still wants 73 licenses to be granted.

The licensing requirements by Britain, which the fishermen complained were "too onerous" to get, mandate fisheries to prove previous fishing journeys in British waters, Express UK reported. However, France has remained differentiated over the nature and extent of evidence necessary to prove that. Meanwhile, the tensions escalated after the UK threatened to block ferries and transit across the Channel Tunnel further gaslighting the situation. France, on the other hand, has vowed to keep battling in fishing disputes with the United Kingdom. 

(Image: AP)