Lille (AFP)
The presidents of the regional councils of Hauts-de-France, Normandy and Brittany demanded in a letter made public Thursday and addressed to the government that it engages in a "constructive and firm dialogue" with the United Kingdom on the impact Brexit on fishing.
"We must at all costs avoid a fishermen's battle", write the presidents of the three regional councils, respectively Xavier Bertrand, Hervé Morin and Loïg Chesnais-Girard. They fear that British officials will decide to "regain control over their territorial waters" in the context of negotiations on a future agreement framing relations between the United Kingdom and the EU.
However, according to the three leaders, "many local communities" depend on fishing and "the vast majority of their catch is made in British waters". "Denying them access would mean signing their near death sentence," they say.
They therefore demand that the French government initiate a "constructive but firm dialogue" with the British on this subject and that France intervene "at European level" to defend the interests of French fishermen in the negotiations.
On Wednesday, a French MEP, Pierre Karleskind (Renew Europe), from the ranks of La République en Marche and installed in Brittany for twenty years, was elected to the chair of the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament.
"We demand reciprocal access to waters, that is, conditions identical to those we have now, no more no less," he said of the negotiations, stressing that an agreement should be found "before July 1st".
Fishermen from eight EU member states are highly dependent on access to British waters, which are very full of fish. The French make 30% of their turnover there.
© 2020 AFP