• Paris and London must agree no later than this Friday on the thorny issue of fishing licenses in British waters

  • According to France, not all the licenses requested have received a response.

  • In the event of an impasse, the Minister of the Sea, Annick Girardin said she was ready to go “to litigation”.

The deadline is approaching.

France and Great Britain must agree no later than this Friday on the thorny issue of fishing licenses in British waters.

This file is one of the subjects of the post-Brexit still unresolved.

If you too are wondering what the nationality of your seafood will be at Christmas dinner,

20 Minutes

has listed five questions (and their answers) to see more clearly.

What is a fishing license?

This is an essential document for French fishermen to be able to fish legally in British waters.

Since Brexit, a new license is required.

It allows the English authorities to certify that French boats were already fishing between 2012 and 2016, which corresponds to the period chosen for the agreement with the European Union.

Special case: in the waters located between the island of Jersey and Guernsey, which are particularly rich in fish, it is necessary to justify at least 11 days of fishing this time between February 1, 2017 and January 30, 2020. Grégory Guida, the Minister of Home Affairs of Jersey, estimated on franceinfo at the beginning of November that “if we add unlimited boats [without a license], the effort [the number of fish caught] will increase, it is absolutely inevitable.

"

Why this deadline?

This date of December 10 was set on November 24 by the European Commissioner for the Environment and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius.

This ultimatum came a few hours after the message from France, which asked the European Union to be more "active" on its dispute with the British.

"The space for dialogue must have a deadline and this deadline, the Commission must give to the United Kingdom", declared Annick Girardin, the French Minister for the Sea.

How many licenses remain to be obtained for France?

The account is not there yet.

Since January 1, France has obtained 1,004 licenses, according to the executive.

There are still "94 to obtain", according to the count made this Thursday by Annick Girardin, on the eve of the deadline.

This total was updated after the validation of 43 French boat fishing licenses by the government of the Channel Island of Guernsey on December 1.

All authorized French vessels will be able to continue fishing in these waters after February 1, 2022. 

London estimated at the end of November, before the update of the French minister, to have granted 98% of the licenses requested (according to the current French count, starting from the 1,004 licenses obtained and the 94 pending, this percentage is close to 91.5%).

What is still blocking?

In the area of ​​6 to 12 nautical miles (between 11 and 22 km) of the British coasts, the debates are tense for 40 boats (over 12 meters) which were recently launched to replace old ships.

London refuses for the moment to issue them a license, considering that these are new requests because they relate to more modern and often more powerful ships.

Another sticking point between the two countries: the nature and extent of the documents to be provided for French fishermen.

What will happen without any agreement?

If the impasse persists, France will clash with its neighbor.

Annick Girardin thus warned this Thursday that if all the fishing licenses still requested in the United Kingdom were not granted by Friday evening, Paris would request a meeting at European level.

She would even go "to litigation" with the government of Boris Johnson.

On November 18, the minister announced the existence of a possible compensation package for tricolor boats.

"Without prejudging the consequences of the negotiations, I asked the Fisheries Department (DPMA) to offer me, in relation with the professionals, an estimate of the fleet exit plans that I could finance", she said. declared.

She specified that "an envelope of 40 to 60 million euros" could "be put on the table".

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Post-Brexit fishing: France calls for a "quick solution" to the dispute between it and the United Kingdom

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