Because between the UK and France it is ending up fish in the face
The point of Daniele Meloni
It is not just the Northern Irish Protocol that creates disagreements between London and Brussels. Yesterday the tension between the United Kingdom and the European Union has skyrocketed due to the behavior – defined as "disappointing and disproportionate" – of the port authorities of Le Havre, France, who seized a British fishing boat guilty of entering European territorial waters without permission to fish.
The affair has sent Downing Street on a rampage. Last summer, Prime Minister Johnson did not hesitate to deploy the Navy to Jersey to deny a dozen French vessels a license to fish in British waters. The French then argued that the behavior of the Tory leader – who has a large following among pro-Brexit British fishermen – contravened what was agreed in the Free Trade and Cooperation Agreement signed by the United Kingdom and the EU on 24 December 2020.
The diplomatic war thus began. Earlier, the French Minister for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, said that "the British only understand the language of force". Then the Castex government announced that it will block all UK fishing vessels and tighten controls on ships if the issue is not resolved by 2 November. In the ultimatum, the French even went so far as to threaten to stop the unloading of British products in their ports and to cut electricity in Jersey, a territory under the British Crown, as they did last May.
London did not stand by, of course. Beyond the sarcasm on the "language of force" – the British have pointed out that usually if the language used is that it does not end well for the French – diplomacy has moved. National Security Advisor Lord Frost chaired a ministerial summit to consider the country's response to France. In a statement, the British government said that "it has already granted the license to fish in UK waters to 98% of European vessels and that it is France that is not respecting the Brexit agreement". Yesterday evening, the Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, even summoned the French Ambassador to London, Catherine Colonna, for explanations on the matter.
The Minister of the Environment, Eustice, spoke to the municipalities where he explained that the Cornelis Gert Jan – this is the name of the fishing boat – had obtained the license and it is inexplicable why it was subsequently removed from the list of vessels that can fish in European waters.
While both Johnson and Macron have remained on the sidelines so far, the feeling is that politics is playing a major part in the dispute. The UK premier must demonstrate to his fishing voters that he intends to defend their rights after the fishing community criticized his deal with Brussels. The owner of the confiscated fishing boat is, moreover, a Scotsman and the opportunity is good to be tough with the French and defend the interests of fishermen and Scots, thus trying to represent the whole United Kingdom. For the French President, who will seek his second term in 2022, flexing his muscles in London has a double purpose: to rise as EU leader by defending the Common Fisheries Policy – towards the hated England, and, at the same time, protect his pêcheurs, looking for a few more votes in view of the electoral campaign by showing himself nationalist just enough to fish – it should be said – in the reservoir of votes of the republican and post-Gaullist right.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-tra-regno-unito-e-francia-sta-finendo-a-pesci-in-faccia/ on Fri, 29 Oct 2021 07:59:46 +0000.