Channel War: France threatens to cut light on the British Jersey Islands
France could cut electricity to the Channel Islands, a possession of the British Crown, if they do not agree to grant fishing licenses to French sailors from Normandy. French Fisheries Minister Annick Girardin told parliament that the new rules governing access to the waters of the Channel Islands are unacceptable.
He said France is "ready to use … retaliatory measures" under the post-Brexit UK-EU trade deal. “I'm sorry it came to this [but] we'll do it if necessary,” he said.
Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, receives 95% of its electricity through three submarine cables from France, and the threat could be precisely this supply.
French fishermen complained that they were unable to operate in British waters due to difficulties in obtaining licenses to fish in the Channel Islands. To understand the importance of the territorial waters of these islands we show you this map in which the sea in question is highlighted by a red circle:
In a statement to the AFP news agency, the French Ministry of Fisheries said that the UK has introduced "new technical measures" related to fishing licenses off the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guersey) that had not been disclosed. to the EU and are therefore "null", according to his conception of international law. The thing is complicated by the fact that the Channel Islands are not part of England, but are nominally "Direct Possessions of the Crown", the last remnant of the Duchy of Normandy, that of William the Conqueror, so they are neither part of the Commonwealth. nor have they ever been part of the EU. Therefore, the Islands themselves were not required to communicate anything to the Union. After all, for the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs " Jersey is responsible for its own territorial waters ". Boris Johnson can do nothing but indirect pressure, because the Islands have the full right to restrict fishing in their waters and impose the use of quota licenses, as they are effectively doing.
The latest comments mark an escalation in the fishing rights dispute, which has been simmering for months and marked a key point in post-Brexit trade negotiations.
The French fisheries ministry said the new rules dictate "where ships can go and can't go", as well as the number of days fishermen can spend in the area. "This is totally unacceptable," Girardin said. "If we accept this for Jersey, it would jeopardize our access to any sea."
Last week, French Minister for Europe Clément Beaune accused the UK more generally of blocking fishing rights. He said the EU could respond with "reprisals" in financial services.
Meanwhile, UK seafood exporters have been hit by an EU ban on UK exports of live shellfish such as mussels, oysters, clams, clams and scallops.
There have already been cases in which French fishing boats have forced the sea of the islands chased by English coastguards who are responsible for the defense of the islands. The Channel Islands were the only British Crown possession in Europe to be occupied by the Germans in World War II.
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The article War of the Channel: France threatens to cut the light to the British Jersey Islands comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/guerra-della-manica-la-francia-minaccia-di-tagliare-la-luce-alle-britanniche-isole-jersey/ on Wed, 06 Oct 2021 07:00:55 +0000.