October 28, 2021 - 2:00pm
The great Anglo-French fish war of 2021 has begun.
Two British scallop boats were challenged by the “Gendarmerie Maritime” in the Bay of the Seine on Wednesday morning.
One had no licence for French waters and was forced into Le Havre to face charges. The other refused at first to stop and was charged with trying to evade controls (although it had otherwise done nothing wrong).
In fact, this was probably just a routine check by the French maritime authorities. It has been spun nonetheless by Paris as part of France’s escalation of a bad-tempered and seemingly trivial dispute with the UK over post-Brexit fishing licences. Just today, France’s Europe minister said that the UK only understands the “language of force”.
Now it is threatening from next Tuesday to impose pettifogging bureaucracy on trucks arriving in France from Britain — something that could gum up the Channel Tunnel and Channel ports and further disrupt Britain’s already suffering post-Brexit trade with the continent.
There is also a secondary threat by Paris to reduce or increase the bill for electricity supplies from France to Jersey and Britain — but not to cut off cross-Channel power cables as originally and foolishly threatened.
The dispute between two neighbours and allies and deeply intertwined defence partners (Brexit or no Brexit) may appear absurdly overblown. Fisheries are a tiny part of the economy in both countries: 0.06% of GDP in France; 0.1% in the UK.
The argument is about only a tiny part of these small (but romantic and politically powerful) industries. It concerns 180 missing licences for small French boats to fish between six and 12 miles of the English and Jersey coasts. Most foreign fishing vessels are allowed to fish only up to 12 miles from UK shores.
The exception was made for centuries-old French inshore catches in a wider fishing deal reached last December as part of Britain’s post-Brexit agreement with the EU. French boats would be given licences if they could show that they had fished these waters in recent years.
Ten months later, London has provided only 100 of the 175 licences requested for fishing off England. Jersey has offered only 106 of the 211 licences requested for its waters. Guernsey is being more helpful.
The British and Jersey governments say the boats’ owners have failed to produce the required proof of past fishing effort. The French say that small boats have no satellite tracking devices and have produced as much evidence as they can. Other EU countries, to France’s fury, have declined to get involved.
Doubtless there is fault on both sides but Britain’s attempts to wriggle out of the Northern Ireland part of the Brexit deal damages its case for a rigid interpretation of the fish deal with France.
The British government’s good faith was also called into question by its own statement last night on the French retaliation plans. London said that it had issued 98% of requested licences but did not make it clear that this applied to all EU fishing boats in all UK fishing waters.
Even that figure was wrong. It is more like 90%. The missing 10% are almost all made up of the inshore licences for small French boats — of which only 53% have been accepted.
With good will on both sides the dispute could be resolved in an afternoon. Cross-Channel good will — eroded also by Britain’s part in France’s loss of a multi-billion euro submarine deal with Australia — is currently in short supply.
Prepare for a long and foolish “war”.
John Lichfield was Paris correspondent of The Independent for 20 years. Half-English and half-Belgian, he was born in Stoke-on-Trent and lives in Normandy.
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SubscribeIf the boats were not supposed to be there then I have no sympathy. On the broader point I find it staggering that access to British waters is considered such an inalienable right to French trawlers that they
a. Refuse to accept it
b. Think that threatening to cutting off energy and food is a proportionate or reasonable response.
My comment is pending approval because I used (what I thought was a mild expletive–B…. H..L,) BUT I find it staggering that fishing boats are so important, while the invasion of the UK by human smuggling boats continues unabated.
“If they were not supposed to be there then I have no sympathy….”
Does this also apply to trafficking boats?
Why does the UK allow this invasion to continue unabated? Is it because you have looked at the US Southern border and come to a collective decision that, yes, this is what we want for the UK?
It seems that serious steps were taken in WW II to prevent an invasion and deal with it if it came, i.e. cutting communications, changing maps, street signs, etc.
Now the welcome mat is out. UK being played!
Hard to disagree with you mate, I have little sympathy for people risking their lives to break in to the UK from war torn France either. Asylum was not intended to be a smorgasbord, if anyone can rock up anywhere and claim ‘asylum’ I might just try that in France and claim I’m being persecuted by left wing maniacs because I switched from Labour to Tory in 2019
Cheers, Cheryl: thank you for your kind words. We’re a bit far from fish, but since we are here, let me pose a question: In the USA, who should determine US immigration policy? Should it be the American people, through their elected officials, or should it be, by their very numbers, invading hordes? When Sen. Simena was confronted in the bathroom, it might have not been noticed by Europeans that the people confronting her were economic terrorists, my preferred term for illegal immigrants. People with no right to be in the US making “demands” on a Senator!
I’ve always found this a bit weird: after decades of careful consideration and finally agreement, the EU determined how “asylum” would be procured, which involved paperwork and processing in the first EU country reached. But the invading hordes in Southern Europe, like the invading hordes in America, had a different view, which they imposed, through their sheer numbers, without any consequence. What do I mean, you ask?
When these invading hordes reach Greece, par example, they are requested to submit passports, fingerprints, start the process. My understanding of the process is that many, perhaps most, say, Blimey, I’m not doing that, mate. I shredded my passport and I scuffed my fingertips so you can’t take prints. I’m off to my cousin in Germany. You can…. off.
Similarly, for inexplicable reasons, the invading hordes from certain countries who were “tourists” in Belarus do not seem to be interested in asylum in Poland. Well you can ….off. I’m going to my cousin in Malmo….
EU is being played, just as the UK is.
“USA, who should determine US immigration policy? Should it be the American people, through their elected officials, or should it be, by their very numbers, invading hordes?”
Immigration policy across the West has been outsourced to Criminal Foreign Cartels and Organized Crime Syndicates.
The West is in the final stage of Degeneracy which ends empires.
The solution would be to allow the fishing boats in and then load them with illegal immigrants for the return journey
Some of those trawlers ( and it must be remembered many of them are small family boats) from certain ports do in fact have inalienable right to those fishing grounds, granted by the British crown as long ago as the 11th century, and respected as such before the EU was a twinkle in eyes of Germany and France. To destroy the livelihoods of small, often family, business (who have endured for generations) out of nationalist spite and petty political point scoring (on both sides) makes both France and the U.K. seem small and silly. The Channel Islands are not (nor have they ever been) part of the U.K. can make their own choices as democratic nations in their own right, petty or otherwise. The tendency of the small minded to take umbridge at the unimportant is not only mean spirited, it’s petty, cruel, and dismally (in the minds of reasonable people) undignified. I’m tempted to quote Pope on this, but fear people would assume it was The Pope; and it’s silly enough already.
France has been hell-bent on Brexit revenge and this arrested Scottish vessel has provided an excuse to target the UK again. Macron needs support in the Channel to make up for a lack of policy or party machine to win re-election. Why not challenge UK sovereignty and unity? And does France not have a right to defence trade deals, if it so says? France’s approach is pure Russian, multiplied by the EU when possible. As a long-term precaution, the UK, whilst refraining from challenges to French sovereignty or seeking to reignite Corse, Breton or Basque separatism, may need to diversify trade, energy and other links to other EU states and beyond. This is a spat over sprats but the mood music is dire. The spectacle of Michel Barnier adopting electoral positions in France that he deplored in the UK during negotiations underlines the cynicism, and Macron’s overall opportunism ahead of his possible electoral defeat in a weary and febrile nation. Honneur et Patrie? Pas lui.
Maybe just throw Macron a bone and we could stop helping his re-election campaign. The French are the most awkward people in Europe and always think of themselves as somewhat superior and above the normal rules of sensible engagement. The less time we have to hear about them the better!
“One had no license for French waters…”
Mon Dieu! I imagine all of the smuggling boats have licenses for both French and UK waters, and that is why they are not stopped, or better yet, sunk!
UK worried about 2 scallops or 3 cod while the invasion of the UK continues more or less unimpeded.
Bloody hell! BREXIT had consequences, so grow up!
Meanwhile, the invasion continues…..
I guess John Litchfield doesn’t like the UK very much. It is easy to see where his sympathies lie.
John Litchfield has been swimming for the past 25 years in the Parisien pool of the self proclaimed liberal journalistic elites who believe they hold the truth and that any person from outside the périphérique is ignorant and that because they escape Paris on weekends for their cosy houses in Normandy know the french people. John Litchfield’s obsequiousness to Macron and his supporters ( and to François Holland previously and Anne Hidalgo) is somewhat nauseating no wonder people like Le Pen and Zemmour are rising in France and the Gilets Jaunes as a reaction to this parisien élite. Of course if he’d wrote anything different he would immediately be banned from all those circles and their social life so his life in France would be worthless but he could always go to Britain, Belgium or Ireland my guess is for one of the latter.
How we are diminshed. 200 hundred years ago we fought the French with ships of the line. Now we fight with trawlers. Nelson would have seen the funny side of this.
The French government is providing the UK government with an excuse for it to take actions with respect to the the Withdrawal Agreement, that it might have otherwise been reluctant to take, using French intransigence as a smokescreen.
Poor journalism from John Lichfield as he casts the U.K. as being largely to blame with his tone and presentation.
Why am I paying for such a poor and biased analysis?
The fact is that French fishermen like farmers often have small businesses and as the article says ‘small boats have no satellite tracking devices’ or paper records. Their frustration at British bureaucracy is understandable as is the planned response to clutter British boats with administration. t*t for tat is silly of course but it makes a point.
Note that the vessel appears to be British registered but has a “foreign” name. Fishing vessels are very often named after members of the owners family. The operators say that the vessel is licenced to fish those waters. Has the (onboard) copy of the licence been hidden in an attempt to stir the proverbial?
Or not. Nice PR brief, but far from being a long fish war this is just another salvo in Brexit skirmishing and Macron campaign politics by fish proxy. Macron’s ability to lob his toys beyond the pale of his pram has been noted by all, together with clottish meddling in NI politics. His cot screams are falling on deaf ears.
A quite ridiculous article that belongs in the netherland of ft.com Remoan fantasy.