Thibaud Hue 5:59 p.m., December 2, 2021
France welcomes the decision of the authorities of the Channel Islands of Guernsey to grant 40 fishing licenses to the French.
The Minister of Fisheries recalls that the fight continues for the 111 other pending requests.
The Normandy Fisheries Committee recalls that licenses alone are not enough and that restrictive fishing measures must be tackled.
The authorities in the Channel Islands of Guernsey took a bite out of the hook.
They have just granted 43 licenses to Norman fishermen who will thus be able to continue fishing in the Channel after February 1, 2022. France was asking for more than 150 authorizations.
Annick Girardin French Minister for the Sea welcomes this decision but insists that the fight continues.
111 files to be examined still remain unanswered.
Joined Thursday morning by Europe 1, Marc de La Haye, president of the Normandy Fisheries Committee stresses that the licenses do not resolve the entire conflict. The Guernsey authorities must also clarify some rules. He adds that it is not enough to have access but that it is also necessary to specify "on how many days do we have the right, what quantity possible, what type of gear, what species to fish and what seasonality." We need to work, but Guernsey has put a number of restrictive fishing measures in parallel with the licenses, such as the ban on the caging of bluefin tuna when we see more and more in the English Channel. spectacularly reconstructed specimens. There is still work to be done ", specifies Marc de La Haye.
The European Commission had asked the English authorities to resolve the dispute over fishing licenses before December 10.
The post-Brexit agreement provided that European fishermen can continue to work in UK waters provided they can prove that they were fishing there before Brexit.
The dispute between France and England relates to the nature and extent of the supporting documents to be provided.