Britain and Jersey Governments have issued more permits to French fishing vessels to conduct trawling operations in British waters, apparently to ease tensions across the strait.
Brussels set a deadline for resolving the fishing dispute after Brexit at midnight on Friday, but no agreement was announced.
However, the British government later confirmed that Environment Minister George Eustice and Virginijus Sinkevičius from the European Commission had a “weeks of intensive technical discussions on licensing” on Friday night, which resulted in more small boat licenses being confirmed.
In a statement, a spokesperson said that 18 permits have been issued to alternative vessels that can provide “new evidence” of previous fishing in British waters, and an additional 7 vessels are under consideration. They said that Jersey has issued permanent permits to five other ships.
France has threatened to urge the EU to take legal action and trade restrictions against Britain if there are no “signs of good faith” in the fishing dispute before the midnight deadline set by Brussels.
It is not clear whether the latest UK licensing proposal will satisfy the French government’s definition of a “goodwill gesture” in the negotiations.
On Friday, French Minister of European Affairs Clément Beaune stated that the deadline could be extended as long as the United Kingdom provides “a few dozen extra licenses” to show that “the dialogue is yielding results”.
The United Kingdom stated that it is considering ending the latest phase of negotiations.
Fishing rafts-involving French fishermen Prevent Britain from entering the port In continental Europe-the center is the license for trawling in the waters of the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands in accordance with the terms of the trade agreement with the European Union after Brexit, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).
The main source of contention is the number of permits for small French vessels to fish in the waters off the British coastline, which can prove that they were operating there before Brexit.
France stated that the United Kingdom did not issue sufficient permits to its fishermen, while the British government insisted on issuing applications to those with the correct documents.
Before the announcement on Saturday, from a French perspective, there were approximately 100 outstanding permits.
A spokesman for the British government stated that it had adopted an “evidence-based approach” and that it had “not issued a license” without providing fishing data.
They provided details of the decision to grant more fishing licenses and added: “On the direct replacement of vessels, we have adopted a TCA-compliant approach to provide stability and ensure the sustainability of our fishery.
“Last night, after receiving new evidence [European] Commission, the United Kingdom approved 18 replacement ships under this method. It is planned to complete another seven further technical work for direct replacement of ship permits on Monday.
“Jersey announced today that after receiving new data this week, it can issue permanent licenses to five other eligible ships currently holding temporary licenses. This will bring the total number of permanent licenses issued by Jersey to 130.
“This now ends the intensive negotiations on licensing at this stage.”
Officials said that the process of issuing permits is based on “evidence rather than deadlines,” and negotiations will continue until next week.
They emphasized that the United Kingdom and the Royal Territories “spare no effort to help ships prove” their historical fishing activities, including the purchase of commercial electronic positioning data.
In order to meet British standards, ships need to prove that they had fished in British waters for 1 day per year for the four years between 2012 and 2016, while Guernsey and Jersey require evidence that the fishing time exceeded 10 days in the year mentioned above. period.
