The British and Europeans seem to have managed to come to an agreement on fishing, one of the areas of tension between the two parties during the negotiations of the post-Brexit agreement.

On the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Thursday morning, the news was well received, despite gray areas on a text a priori less favorable than the current status quo.

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Fisheries was one of the main points of contention between the European Union and the United Kingdom, which until that night negotiated a trade and security agreement on the future of their relations, almost a year after the Brexit.

According to French sources, the British took a big step towards the Europeans during the last part of the negotiations.

On Europe 1, Thursday morning, MEP Nathalie Loiseau (Renaissance, presidential majority) confirmed "very large concessions" British in this area.

"Limited" damage, according to Loiseau

In Boulogne-sur-Mer, one of the main fishing ports in France, there were no crowds on Thursday morning, Christmas break requires.

Europe 1 was still able to meet Emmanuel Pauchet, a fisherman for 32 years.

The announcement of an agreement is excellent news for him: "It is still a satisfaction because the concern lingered on the docks for some time. If it had been a 'no deal', our activity would have been reduced to none, because we spend 70% of our time on the English side. Not being able to access these waters would have been problematic for us ", he confides, not knowing however" what really happened ".

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So what have the two parties concluded in terms of fishing?

The 2,000-page text has not yet been released.

Nathalie Loiseau, member of the group responsible for monitoring these negotiations in the European Parliament, believes that this is "a form of agreement which limits the damage to European fishermen".

Despite everything, the loss will be real for professionals like Emmanuel Pauchet.

"From there to say that the agreement is the extension of the previous status quo, this is not the case," concedes Nathalie Loiseau.

"What we used to do together to fish together has been destroyed by Brexit."

"A whole dependent economy"

This news of an agreement was also well received in the gourmet fish market near the fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

There, we are busy for Christmas Eve.

Sole, mackerel, but also lobsters and crabs are piled up on the stalls.

"This agreement is clearly good news because it will allow us to ensure sustainability in terms of the quantity of inputs", greets Philippe Wattez, wholesaler (it is he who buys the fish at the auction). 

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Hundreds of thousands of families who live directly or indirectly from fishing

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"It's a whole economy that depends on that", continues the professional, with "hundreds of thousands of families who live directly or indirectly from fishing. I think that this agreement is necessary as much for the English as for the French. "

In Boulogne-sur-Mer, the fishing industry represents more than 5,000 jobs that a "no deal" would have directly threatened.