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For everyone involved, two machine-gun ships of the British Navy patrolled off the island of Jersey on Thursday morning.

Boris Johnson had sent the "HMS Severn" and "HMS Tamar" the previous evening from Portsmouth to the English Channel in the direction of the French coast, "as a precautionary measure", as the British Prime Minister announced.

The reason for London's saber rattling is the protest of French fishermen who have been cruising with more than 60 ships off St. Helier, the main port on the island of Jersey, since the previous day.

With their action, the French are protesting against what they consider to be discriminatory conditions for fishing licenses, which they have had to apply to the British since Brexit.

The authorities of the island of Jersey, which as the autonomous crown possession of Great Britain are allowed to make their own decisions, changed the rules for admission at short notice, so the allegation.

Many fishing trawlers would not have received a license at all.

Those with a license were given unacceptable restrictions on what they were allowed to catch when and how last Friday without warning.

The regulations only apply to EU ships, not UK ships.

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The French government also dispatched two navy ships in response on Thursday.

Proof that the protesting fishermen know that the Paris government is on their side.

Economically it may not be about large sums of money, but the French feel they are simply being tricked by the British.

Clément Beaune, France's Secretary of State for Europe, asserted that there was no tension, but the British maneuver would not “impress” them either.

EU supports France

The Commission of the European Union (EU) supported the French side.

"The Commission has made it clear to the UK that the terms of the trade and cooperation agreement have not been respected," said a spokesman.

The conditions should not apply until further reasons from London.

In the afternoon, the French finally announced that they would withdraw their ships.

Not because there is a solution, but “because we can't be in Jersey for days,” explains Didier Leguelinel from the Comité de pêche Normandie Grandville-Jersey in an interview with WELT.

Fishermen's representatives had previously held talks with Jersey's authorities.

Now the responsible ministers of both countries would have to find a solution, it said.

The island is not part of the United Kingdom but is represented by London on foreign and security matters.

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The confrontation comes at a time when London actually wanted to bring more calm to the Brexit question. It was only on Wednesday that the EU ambassador in London, João Vale de Almeida, was granted diplomatic status after a four-month dispute. The British Foreign Ministry had so far refused the Portuguese on the grounds that the European Union was an international organization and not a sovereign state. In retaliation, Brussels had excluded the British ambassador to the EU from meetings.

At the same time, there should be approximations on the contentious issue of customs controls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. These were necessary after the end of the transition phase and a more open border with the Republic of Ireland in order to guarantee the security of the EU internal market. In London, it said the Johnson administration may align UK food health regulations with European ones, which could eliminate controls.

In this situation, the dispute over the fishing grounds around Jersey bursts.

At the beginning of the week there was an official statement from the French government that the new fishing licenses were accompanied by conditions that had not been agreed.

The minister responsible, Annick Girardin, threatened to take “retaliatory measures”, such as cutting off the electricity supply to the Anglo-Norman islands, which is guaranteed by submarine cables from France.

Jersey gets 95 percent of its energy by cable from France, which is around 23 kilometers away, while the British coast is 140 kilometers away.

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One of the fishermen who protested Thursday is Baptiste Lihou.

“The zone where we can fish is simply half the size it was before,” he said on French television.

With his fishing boat "Cap Lihou", for example, he is only allowed to fish 22 days a year in Anglo-Norman waters; before Brexit it was "several hundred".

"We didn't expect that," asserts Dimitri Rogoff, President of the Normandy Fishermen's Regional Committee (CRPMEM).

“The French fishermen don't specialize in one type of fish.

But the limitations make this versatility impossible, ”added Rogoff in an interview with WELT.

In his view it is "pure provocation" from the Jersey government.

The French criticize the fact that the fishing licenses were issued slowly and to the taste of the British. The Elysée Palace announced on Thursday evening without the necessary exchange of information, "which partners owe each other." According to official information, of the 344 licenses applied for, only 41 have so far been granted. These mainly affect large ships that, thanks to their GPS data, were able to prove that they had fished in the zone in previous years. It is feared that there are no licenses at all for the approximately 80 smaller ships.

For centuries the sea off the Anglo-Norman islands was “peacefully divided”, so Rogoff. From Saint-Malo, France, you can see the houses on Jersey when the weather is good. “It is sad, yes sick, that it has come to this point. We fishermen all know each other by first name. Up until Brexit, we met three times a year to negotiate the modalities of fish rights. We call the Zone

la mer commune

, but only the name is common now, ”says Rogoff.