Brexit: Retired civil servant discusses fishing row

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The accusation comes as the UK and Jersey issued further licences to French fishing boats to trawl British waters in an apparent attempt to ease Cross-Channel tensions. The Brussels-imposed deadline of midnight on Friday for solving the post-Brexit fishing row passed without an agreement being announced. However, the British Government has since confirmed talks on Friday evening between Environment Secretary George Eustice, and Virginijus Sinkevičius, from the European Commission, resulted in more small-boat licences being granted. It followed “several weeks of intensive technical discussions on licensing”.

June Mummery, former MEP for the East of England and founder of the Renaissance of the East Anglian Fisheries, condemned Mr Johnson and Lord David Frost’s actions.

Ms Mummery said: “So, David Frost rolled over and granted 23 more licences, seven pending. Let’s be clear French Fishermen are NOT entitled to any more license these were given as goodwill.”

She added: “I said this would happen, give the bully boys an inch and they will take a mile.”

She ended with the hashtag “weak”.

The MEP also used the opportunity to accuse European fishermen of seeking to exploit British fishing waters and quotas.

She said: “1. France has 92 percent of the quota for cod in the English Channel. 2. In the Celtic sea, France gets nearly 3X times the British allocation of Dover sole, 4x times more cod and 5x more haddock.”

She continued the list: “3. 35,000 tonnes of fish that arrives in Boulogne each year, 2/3 come from British waters. 4. The licences they are trying to blag are worth serious amounts of money.”

With such statistics in mind, the former MEP said: “No one seems to be challenging Ministers on this. Little by little Frost and Boris are caving into EU bully boys. Why?!”

Defending the issuing of further licences to French fishermen, a Government spokesperson said: “18 more licences had been granted to replacement vessels that had been able to present ‘new evidence’ of having previously fished in British waters, with seven more boats under consideration.”

They added: “Jersey had granted permanent licences to an additional five vessels.”

France had threatened to press the EU to instigate legal action and trade restrictions against the UK if there was not a “sign of goodwill” in the fishing wrangle before the midnight deadline set by Brussels.

It is unclear whether the UK’s latest licences offer will satisfy the French government’s definition of a “gesture of good faith” in the talks.

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However, many French fishermen are still not happy and disillusioned that President Emmanuel Macron has not done more to obtain more licences.

The fishing row – which had involved French fishers blocking British access to ports on the continent – centres on licences to trawl in UK and Channel Islands waters under the terms of Britain’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).

The main source of contention is the number of licences to fish in waters around the British coastline for smaller French vessels that can prove they operated there before Brexit.

France says the UK has not handed out enough licences to its fishers, while the British Government has insisted that applications have been granted to those who have the correct documentation.

Officials said the process of issuing licences had been based on “evidence rather than deadlines”, with talks continuing into next week.

They stressed the UK and the crown dependencies had “gone to great lengths to help vessels prove” their historical fishing activity, including purchasing commercially available electronic positioning data.

To satisfy UK criteria, vessels need to prove that they have fished in UK waters for one day in each of the four years between 2012 and 2016, while Guernsey and Jersey ask for evidence of fishing for more than 10 days in one year of the above period.

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