Brussels tells Paris to pull out of fishing war
European Commission plays down talk of French retaliation as it seeks ‘amicable’ solution to row
BRUSSELS has knocked back French demands to hit the UK with tariffs and cut off British access to EU energy supplies in the row over post-brexit fishing rights.
Several member states told Paris to dial down the rhetoric until a full investigation into the dispute is carried out, it emerged yesterday.
Emmanuel Macron is under mounting pressure to retaliate after London granted only 12 out of 47 applications for small French boats to operate in Britain’s fishing grounds.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen told the French president he had to use every possible tool as leverage to secure more licences for fishermen.
This should include threatening to withdraw co-operation to curb crosschannel migration, she said.
The European Commission has, however, sought to cool tensions between Paris and London in order to find an “amicable” solution to the row.
Sources have told The Daily Telegraph that French ministers were prematurely talking about ultimatums while the commission and the UK engage in detailed “boat-by-boat” negotiations. A senior EU diplomat said: “Once again France is instrumentalising the EU for national interests.”
A second source said: “We need to cool the temperature of the water. We need to sit down and talk amicably. It’s very warm water at the moment and that doesn’t help anyone.”
Mr Macron has told his government to draw up plans for a retaliatory strike against Britain, including cutting energy supplies to the UK and Jersey or severing Anglo-french ties in defence and security.
Paris earlier this week called an emergency meeting of the EU’S coastal states appealing for European-wide retaliation against Britain, according to the source.
A number of member states raised concerns that the facts of the row were yet to be fully established, with some claiming both France and the UK could be to blame for the dispute.
“It transpired that most member states, before we do anything, want to make sure everything that happened here happened the way it should have,” the diplomat added.
France was also accused of failing to “materially and substantially include the commission” to ensure that its trawlermen were genuinely entitled to access the UK’S coastal waters under the terms of the post-brexit agreement.
The commission has publicly played down the prospect of retaliation and said resolving the row was a “top priority” for the bloc.
Many in Brussels believe it is vital to end the fisheries dispute to stop separate post-brexit negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol becoming blocked by France.
Maros Sefcovic, the EU’S Brexit negotiator and vice-president of the European Commission, said London’s threat to trigger a suspension of parts of the Brexit divorce deal “would not be helpful”. He also ruled out British demands to strip out European Court of Justice jurisdiction over EU rules in Northern Ireland.
He told an event in Dublin yesterday that this would see the province’s access to the single market revoked.
“Let’s think very, very carefully, what we are putting on the table and what kind of price tag this might have,” he said.