by N. Peter Kramer
The UK-French row about post-Brexit fishing rights were further inflamed last week, when a letter emerged from French Prime-Minister Jean Castex to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggesting the fishing dispute was an opportunity to show that member states risk more damage from leaving the EU than staying in. Castex’ counterpart, British PM Boris Johnson said he was ‘puzzled to read a letter from his French colleague explicitly asking for Britain to be punished for leaving the EU’.
Last month, the UK denied permits to dozens of French boats to operate in UK waters. In retaliation, France threatened to block British boats from its ports and cut electricity to Jersey, one of the UK Channel Islands. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has warned that she is prepared to take legal action against France over the ongoing row about fishing rights. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that fishing licences had been awarded to French boats ‘entirely in accordance’ with the post-Brexit deal between the EU and the UK. Ms Truss warned that unless France withdrew its treats, the UK was prepared to ‘use the dispute resolution mechanism in he trade deal we signed with the EU to take action against the French’. ‘We are simply not going to roll over in the face of these treats’, she added.
Although fishing is a small part of both the British and the French economies, it has been a highly sensitive political issue throughout Brexit. On Sunday Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron met for 30 minutes during the G20 summit but failed to resolve the problem. The UK government said it was ‘up to France ’ to draw back from its treat, while Macron insisted the ball was ‘in British court’.
At the moment Macron is under massive pressure from the French right in the lead-up to next year’s presidential election. He has a lot to gain from the metaphorical waving of the French flag, being seen to be standing up to ‘perfidious Albion’, as the French have sometimes referred to the Brits (or the English, depending on the exact moment in history) for centuries.
