Plain sailing for returning UK trawler as France backs down
FRANCE yesterday told Britain it will not issue fresh threats of a trade war over the Channel fishing row.
Talks in Paris to end the dispute about permits ended in a stalemate.
But French minister Clement Beaune assured Lord Frost a blockade is off the table for now, as the skipper at the centre of the spat docked back in Britain.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “They’ve made it clear to us they’re not planning to introduce them in the short-term.”
A Government source said: “We’re glad that the French want to keep talking and haven’t yet followed through on their unlawful threats.”
France was forced to abandon its threatened blockade hours before it was due to go ahead after other EU nations failed to rally round.
Lord Frost and Mr Beaune will talk again next week by telephone after “good” discussions in person.
France claims not enough permits have been granted to its fishing boats under new Brexit rules.
Only those that can show they have fished in UK waters for one day in each of the years between 2012 and 2016 qualify for a licence. Some 1,831 applications for licences have been received, with 1,793 issued.
The main source of contention has been for smaller vessels, where 50 applications have been received – all from French vessels – but just 19 licences issued. Mr Beaune said yesterday’s meeting was a “useful and positive discussion which enabled to restart a dialogue at a political level between France and the UK”.
Meanwhile, the skipper of a scallop trawler at the centre of the dispute returned to Britain yesterday saying he had done nothing wrong. Hours after his court appearance in Rouen, Jondy Ward brought his vessel Cornelis Gert Jan into the port of Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex.
He said French maritime police had detained his trawler last week for not being on a European register when it was fishing off the Normandy coast.
Mr Ward said: “We had everything in order on the bridge, as far as I was concerned.” He insisted the boat was caught in the middle of the spat over post-Brexit fishing arrangements.
A spokesperson for the trawler’s owner, Macduff Shellfish of Aberdeenshire, said: “We are pleased to have this matter resolved. The crew have acted with professionalism throughout the entire incident.”