French fishermen will once again be able to cast their nets in the waters of the Channel Island of Guernsey. Deprived of access since Saturday, the day of entry into force of Brexit, French sailors should be able to return there by the weekend, assured Tuesday 4 February the Secretary of State for European Affairs Amélie de Montchalin.
"I think that by the end of the week, if we work as we were told, things will get back to normal," the secretary of state said on AFP. a visit to a fishmonger's business near Caen.
A "diplomatic agreement"
"We have a diplomatic agreement. We have received a formal letter from Her Majesty the crown (...) We have a political agreement (...) Now, we are in the implementation. We will for example ask for registrations international fishermen who sometimes do not have them. There are small administrative procedures, "said the secretary of state, accompanied by government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye.
The European Commission "has validated a list of boats" which want to fish in Guernsey and "we have an agreement with the island so that they do not take money, that it is without expenses", she added after s 'be returned to Port-en-Bessin (Calvados).
"This is a subject where there has been a general mobilization," she said, citing the Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume, the Prime Minister, the President. Monday in Brussels, "I alerted the commissioners to the fact that this is a subject which was not at all symbolic, which was key to confidence in future negotiations".
For fishermen, it is important "that we do not create a precedent by restricting a small area in the middle of the English Channel for diplomatic reasons", continued Amélie de Montchalin.
According to the president of the Normandy regional fisheries committee, Dimitri Rogoff, "around fifty Norman boats and over a hundred Breton boats are more or less dependent" on Guernsey waters. According to the Breton fisheries committee, there are "a hundred or so" in all in the two regions.
"Do not knead"
The government announced on Saturday that the Guernsey authorities had "temporarily suspended" access by French fishing vessels to the waters of the Channel Island.
Guernsey has "very special status", which falls under the British crown and not the British government, said the minister.
"You saw with Guernsey. Already the day after Brexit is the bazaar," said AFP Didier Lequertier, the boss of the fishmonger business of a hundred employees, before the arrival of the ministers.
"It was a bad sequence at the start of Brexit because the boats had to be told on January 30 'you are going to clear for January 31'. Some have still not left at sea because they are deprived of their zone. But there is a will to get by on both sides, "commented Dimitri Rogoff when interviewed by phone.
"We have sent a strong signal to Europe and to the French government that if at the end of the year it goes like this, it will be a nameless mess," he added.
According to him, "negotiations between the great French maritime power and the small State of Guernsey" initially "failed Friday morning".
Guernsey "was under pressure from Boris Johnson who said 'don't knock'. The British press picked up on the subject to say 'here we are, we are out and we are screwing them out first'," said Dimitri Rogoff.
With AFP
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