LONDON, September 28, 2021 (AFP) – The British government announced, Tuesday (28), that it will allow 12 out of 47 applications for new licenses for small European Union vessels to fish in its territorial waters, in a move that angered France. .
The French Navy Minister, Annick Girardin, regretted the British government’s announcement of the licensing of 12 small ships, when, according to her, Paris ordered an additional 87 ships.
“It is a new refusal by the British to implement the terms of the Brexit agreement, despite all the joint action,” Girardin said in a statement.
“The British should not seize French fisheries for political purposes,” he added. “I only have one goal and that is to get final licenses for fishermen as stipulated in the agreement,” he added.
French fishermen have expressed their dissatisfaction with the way the British government is controlling access to European Union ships in their waters after leaving the bloc.
The UK argues it was “reasonable” and granted around 1,700 licenses to EU vessels to fish in Britain’s exclusive economic zone, which is defined between 12 and 200 miles from the coast.
The remaining applications were rejected due to the lack of evidence of vessel fishing in the area between 2012 and 2016, as stipulated in a post-Brexit deal signed last year in Brussels.
Tensions have been ongoing since Brexit and the subsequent agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union, which requires European fishermen to obtain licenses from the British government to continue fishing in an area between 6 and 12 nautical miles off the Mediterranean. British coast.
These licenses are conditional on proof of previous fishing practices in British waters.
The UK said it had examined 47 petitions instead of 87, as indicated by France.
In total, 100 of the 175 licenses were granted, according to the Department of the Sea, having previously been agreed with the British government.
Added to this are the access ports to the waters of the semi-autonomous Anglo-Norman Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.
France is still awaiting responses to 169 applications for final permits in Jersey and 168 in Guernsey.
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