France and the United Kingdom are experiencing a truce in their conflict over fishing licenses, awaiting face-to-face negotiations tomorrow, while contacts between the two governments continue in search of progress.
The French announcement late Monday, stating that sanctions due to take effect at midnight were being postponed, gave some room for diplomacy.
The British Minister for European Affairs, David Frost, is due to arrive in Paris tomorrow to discuss with his French counterpart, Clément Beaune, a series of matters on the problems in the application of the agreements of the Brexit, with the fishing licenses for Gallic vessels as the main topic of discussion.
“France defends the interests of our fishermen so that they are not slaughtered from the brexit”The French Minister of the Sea, Annick Girardin, affirmed yesterday in a debate in the National Assembly.
In London, the Government yesterday expressed its satisfaction with the French decision not to apply the sanctions anymore, although it did not offer clues about the willingness to attend to the demands of Paris.
“We welcome the fact that France has moved away from the threats it made last Wednesday. We have always said that we want to reduce ”the tension over this conflict, said British Environment Minister George Eustice.
Last Sunday’s meeting between President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Rome on the sidelines of the G20 summit failed to bridge the gap, with London demanding that Paris withdraw the threat of retaliatory measures since yesterday.
The most affected fishing port is Boulogne sur Mer, in the middle of the English Channel, whose mayor, Frédéric Cuvillier, said that he fears the disappearance of a part of the city’s fishing fleet, reports Efe.
“It is an obvious risk,” he said in television statements, in which he pointed out that the ships most affected are small and family-owned.
In that city in the north of France, 45 of the 80 licenses requested to fish in the southern waters of England have yet to be granted, and the mayor emphasizes that these fishermen have been unable to work for “months and months”.
On the other hand, in the area of the Channel Islands, the scene of tensions last May that led to the dispatch of warships from both countries, the situation has improved considerably with the granting of licenses in recent weeks.
The tension “has disappeared” in that area, explained to EFE last Sunday the president of the departmental council of La Mancha (Normandy), Jean Morin.
– .
