French fishermen deprived of access to British waters after Brexit are now set on their fate: after a long administrative process, some 90 ships could be scrapped and their shipowners finally be compensated.
After a diplomatic-commercial battle lasting more than a year between Paris and London, mediated by Brussels, France finally obtained 1,054 fishing licenses from the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands, allowing holders to continue fishing in their waters, as before Brexit.
Compensation conditions
For the dozens of fishermen who have remained on the floor or whose activity has been greatly reduced, the government has planned an “individual support plan” (PAI), or fleet exit plan, for the boats which will be destroyed.
The conditions for access to compensation – for example the justification of a dependency of at least 20% of the total value of the sales of its catches made in British waters in 2019 or 2020 – were set by the government in October .
The overall envelope is 65 million euros, financed by the European Commission.
The amount of aid is calculated for each ship according to its power.
90 ships potentially destroyed
A new step was taken in February: “out of the 164 applications submitted, 90 are eligible for the aid plan, 33 are on the waiting list and the others have been rejected,” Olivier Le Nezet told AFP. Chairman of the National Fisheries Committee.
Eligible applicants, who have been notified in recent days, must now confirm their choice with regional prefectures. If some shipowners withdraw, the aid envelope released will go to a vessel on the waiting list.
Before the Senate, the Secretary of State for the Sea Hervé Berville reaffirmed at the beginning of February that the implementation of this PAI had been dictated by three principles: “helping fishermen”, “maintaining fishing capacity” in France and “not to destabilize” the entire sector, from fishermen to port industries dependent on this activity.
New Concerns
In Finistère, the area which is losing the greatest number of ships, “fears of a destabilization of the downstream sector” – the auctions, the wholesalers – are strong. In Hauts-de-France, it is on the contrary the few validated requests for aid that arouses criticism.
In Boulogne-sur-Mer, France’s leading fishing port, out of 18 files submitted, “we only have 7 that pass”, regrets Olivier Leprêtre, president of the regional committee.
“President Macron had said that each case would have a solution” and “today, we realize that no”, while some ships “have lost more than 50% of their turnover”, storm-t- he.
More generally, the national committee underlines the potentially devastating impact of the various post-Brexit PAIs undertaken in Europe, Ireland, the Netherlands or Scotland on the French ecosystem: “In Ireland, 57 ships will leave, it’s several thousand tons of fish that will no longer arrive in France”, where they were processed and marketed.
Risk on fishing capacity
Even more serious for the national fleet, Olivier Le Nezet underlines the risk of a “loss of fishing capacity”.
It calls on all outgoing vessels to “deposit their access rights”, that is to say the fishing licenses (in France or in other waters) attached to these armaments, “before signing the exit document fleet”.
“If they do it afterwards, it will be too late: we will not lose the fishing quotas but without the right of access, we will lose the right to go and fish these quotas”, he explains, pleading to maintain a strong fishing capacity before the summer of 2026, when European vessels will have to give up 25% of their catches in British waters in a context of increased competition in the Channel.
Finally, an arbitration in Brussels fuels the fury: the prohibition made to the beneficiaries of the PAI to equip a new vessel or to increase its fishing capacity “during the five years following the payment of the aid”.
“It’s scandalous”, for Mr. Le Nezet. “The Commission managed this PAI as if there were a resource problem, while we are managing a post-Brexit plan, in support of a sector”.
