Le barricade begins: French fishermen waving red flares BLOCK British cargo vessel from docking in Brittany in row over fishing licences after threatening to cause chaos at the Channel Tunnel
Militant french fisherman waving red flares have today reignited the UK-France fishing row by blockading a British boat outside a Brittany port.
In a prelude to more dramatic action expected later today, French fishing boats this morning encircled the British flag-bearing Normandy Trader outside Saint-Malo.
The fisherman say the blockade is a protest at what they claim are moves by authorities in London and Jersey to withhold licences to fish in British waters under a post-Brexit deal.
And it could escalate even further later today, when French fisherman plan to blockade Calais and the Channel Tunnel - the two biggest transport hubs between the UK and France. French fishing unions have described the protests as a 'warning shot' to Britain.
This morning's Saint-Malo protest - which has since ended with the release of the Normandy Trader - and the larger action further east along France's coast risks reigniting a dispute between Downing Street and the Elysée over a mutual licensing system for fishing vessels.
It also comes amid another row between the UK and France over cross-Channel migration, with France today calling off talks with Downing Street - due to be held after 27 asylum seekers died in the Channel earlier this week - after Emmanuel Macron took offence to Boris Johnson's public letter detailing a five-point plan to prevent another tragedy.
In a prelude to more dramatic action expected later today, French fishing boats this morning encircled a British boat outside Saint-Malo
French fisherman waving red flares have today reignited the UK-France fishing row by blockading a British boat outside a Brittany port
The fisherman say the blockade is a protest at what they claim are moves by authorities in London and Jersey to withhold licences to fish in British waters under a post-Brexit deal
French fishermen block the 'Normandy Trader' boat at the entrance of the port of Saint-Malo as they started a day of protests to mark their anger over the issue of post-Brexit fishing licenses
Paris says London and the Channel Island of Jersey, a British crown dependency, are not honouring the agreement and dozens of licenses to operate inside their coastal waters are owed to French fishermen. But Downing Street insists it is respecting the post-Brexit arrangements
This morning's Saint-Malo protest and the larger action further east along France's coast risks reigniting a dispute between Downing Street and the Elysée over a mutual licensing system for fishing vesselsThe UK and France have agreed to set up a licensing system for granting fishing vessels access to each other's waters in the wake of Brexit.
Paris says London and the Channel Island of Jersey, a British crown dependency, are not honouring the agreement and dozens of licenses to operate inside their coastal waters are owed to French fishermen.
But Downing Street insists it is respecting the post-Brexit arrangements.
Last month, in a major escalation of the row, French officials seized a British scallop dredger off its northern coast for allegedly operating without a legitimate permit.
They later released the vessel amid uproar from British fisherman and authorities. Both countries have also this year sent patrol vessels to waters off Jersey.
President Emmanuel Macron has accused Britain of pushing his country's patience and said the government would not yield in the dispute.
Fishing rights dogged Brexit talks for years, not because of its economic importance but because of its political significance for both Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Today French fisherman are expected to block ferries and UK-bound goods heading to the Channel Tunnel today in a further escalation in the row over post-Brexit fishing licenses.
Describing the action as a 'warning shot', French national fisheries committee chairman Gerard Romiti said ferry traffic would be blocked at Saint-Malo, Ouistreham and Calais ports as well as freight traffic into the Channel Tunnel.
The blockage will last for several hours, he said. In response, Britain's government said Thursday it was 'disappointed' by the threat.
'We don't want handouts, we just want our licenses back. The UK must abide by the post-Brexit deal. Too many fishermen are still in the dark,' said Romiti.
'We have been waiting with bated breath for 11 months. The patience of professionals has limits. We hope this warning shot will be heard,' he said, refusing to rule out further actions in the future.
Responding to the threat, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman told reporters: 'We are disappointed by threats of protest activity.
'It will be a matter for the French to ensure that there are no illegal actions and that trade is not affected,' he said. 'We continue to monitor the situation closely.'
The threat comes after the the European Union set a December 10 deadline for the UK to resolve the worsening post-Brexit row with France over fishing licences.
The EU's fishing chief, Virginijus Sinkevicius, made the demand during a meeting with Environment Secretary George Eustice on Wednesday.
France had threatened to ban British boats from unloading their catches at French ports and to subject all British imports to inspections.
President Emmanuel Macron then said France would hold off imposing the measures to give dialogue a chance, but French officials have insisted that all options remain on the table.
Meanwhile, Macron was left humiliated after Belgium snubbed his overtures to back Paris in the dispute with Britain.
Fishing rights dogged Brexit talks for years, not because of its economic importance but because of its political significance for both Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
France had threatened to ban British boats from unloading their catches at French ports and to subject all British imports to inspections
President Emmanuel Macron has accused Britain of pushing his country's patience and said the government would not yield in the dispute
The move is a protest at what French fisherman say are moves by authorities in London and Jersey to withhold licences to fish in British waters under a post-Brexit deal
Mr Macron dispatched ministers to Brussels this week as part of his efforts to build support for his stance and for punishing the UK over the row.
But France's Prime Minister Jean Castex and Europe minister Clement Beaune were rebuffed by their Belgian counterparts.
The issue has contributed to growing post-Brexit strains between London and Paris, whose relationship will now also be tested by their response to Wednesday's migrant disaster in the Channel that cost 27 lives.
Tensions over the fisheries dispute even spiralled into a brief naval standoff in May, when dozens of French trawlers massed in front of Jersey's Saint Helier harbour.
The ongoing row centres around the issuing of fishing licences to EU trawlers to work in British waters.
The terms of the Brexit deal dictate that boats must be able to demonstrate, using GPS data, that they worked in the waters before the UK's split from Brussels.
France has accused the UK of failing to grant licences to all eligible vessels but Britain has said some boats have been unable to prove their claims with data and as such have had their applications rejected.
Talks on the issue remain ongoing between the UK, France and the European Commission but French fishermen are 'exasperated' by the 'endless months of waiting' and have threatened to take disruptive action.
UK ministers have demanded assurances from Paris that trade will not be affected after French fishing chiefs signalled they could block Calais and other ports to stop exports to the UK.
The European Union has set a December 10 deadline for the UK to resolve the worsening post-Brexit row with France over fishing licences. French trawlers are pictured in the port of Granville, Normandy on November 4
The EU's fishing chief, Virginijus Sinkevicius, made the demand during a meeting with Environment Secretary George Eustice yesterday
France has been putting pressure on the European Commission to be 'more active' in helping to resolve the standoff and to secure more licences from the UK.
French Fisheries Minister Annick Girardin had asked the Commission to set a deadline and Mr Sinkevicius, the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Commissioner, yesterday obliged.
However, French efforts to bolster support for its position suffered a set back after Belgium snubbed its plea for backing.
Senior sources said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and foreign minister Sophie Wilmes dismissed Paris's call to trigger sanctions against the UK.
They said the French were left under no illusions that the row over access to waters near Britain and the Channel Islands was a 'bilateral matter' for the negotiating table.
French President Emmanuel Macron was left humiliated after Belgium snubbed his overtures to back Paris in the dispute with Britain'There is little appetite for a trade war over this,' the source said. 'This is not our fight. We still want to resolve the outstanding issues through dialogue with the UK.'
The snub by Belgium is the latest embarrassment for Mr Macron ahead of April's presidential election.
One senior EU diplomat said: 'It is quite clear that France is trying to use this dispute for domestic political purposes.'
Another EU source, who works closely on Brexit issues, said most governments want to avoid being dragged into the spat.
Tantrum diplomacy of the Tinpot Napoleon: Brexit has long been driving Emmanuel Macron to ever greater heights of irrationality - and now it's costing lives, says JONATHAN MILLER
By Jonathan Miller for the Daily Mail
President Emmanuel Macron, a man who fancies himself as a cross between Napoleon Bonaparte and Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods, swung swiftly into hyper-spin mode as the news of tragedy in the Channel broke late on Wednesday evening.
‘I will not allow [the Channel] to become a cemetery,’ he declared, as the bodies of 27 migrants, including three children and a pregnant woman, were recovered from the water.
But turning the narrow stretch of sea between Calais and Dover into a graveyard is precisely the consequence of the grotesque policies put in place by Macron himself.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that he and his ministers are not merely content to permit the export of migrants to Britain but are, in effect, colluding with the vile people smugglers to maximise their profits.
Macron's greatest shame is that even as his Brexit-inspired hatred is now proven to be costing lives, this Tinpot Napoleon shows no sign of giving up his bizarre crusade against us, however much Boris Johnson might delude himself otherwise. He is seen with a bust of Napolean in 2019
If you needed definitive proof, then look no further than those astounding pictures in yesterday’s Mail of French police literally turning their backs as migrants launched a dinghy on a beach at Wimereux, north of Boulogne, just hours before the tragic drownings.
Of course Macron not only refused to accept any responsibility for this catastrophe but suggested it was the fault of the UK, telling Boris Johnson he expected ‘the British to co-operate fully and to refrain from using a tragic situation for political purposes’.
Rather ironic from a man for whom politicisation of whoever and whatever to his own advantage is all he knows.
The truth is that Emmanuel Macron seems to have been driven almost insane by Brexit. It shattered his illusion of the European project on a long march to ever deeper integration with ever more influential French leadership (his own, obviously).
The departure of Britain — the second biggest economy in Europe — ruined his dream of a ‘United States of Europe’ and it sowed the seeds of growing discontent with Brussels in some parts of the bloc, with talk of Polexit (Poland) and anti-EU sentiment growing in The Netherlands and Austria.
Of course Macron not only refused to accept any responsibility for this catastrophe but suggested it was the fault of the UK, telling Boris Johnson he expected ‘the British to co-operate fully and to refrain from using a tragic situation for political purposes’
But it is Britain’s rejection of the technocratic EU behemoth that is unfathomable and unacceptable to Macron. In the years since the 2016 EU Referendum, he has lost no opportunity to kick us at every turn, displaying petty and irrational behaviour that demeans his office and makes a mockery of policy.
And not just on migration.
His dismissal of the British-made Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as ‘quasi-ineffective’ in older people earlier this year was not rooted in scientific fact but in bitter revenge.
President Emmanuel Macron, a man who fancies himself as a cross between Napoleon Bonaparte (above) and Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods, swung swiftly into hyper-spin mode as the news of tragedy in the Channel broke late on Wednesday evening.
Britain had beaten France in the race to a vaccine (the French company Sanofi later abandoned its trials) and also procured millions of doses of other potentially viable vaccines ahead of the EU and started its vaccine programme.
Macron’s comments about the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab undermined its use across Europe and delayed uptake. That is now surely coming home to roost with soaring infection rates, hospitalisations and deaths.
And now, in the wake of the Channel tragedy, I believe that Macron finds himself with yet more blood on his hands.
I have a friend who is a French police officer and he tells me that for him and his colleagues, Calais has become a nice little earner for those happy to undertake extra patrol duties. Numerous special allowances and payments are unlocked by volunteering — ‘that you pay for’, my friend laughs.
That’s to say, funded by the British taxpayer, using some of the £54 million so far diverted to French coffers to help patrol the coast.
But this ‘patrolling’ is hardly arduous. Mainly it consists of watching migrants board their inflatables. A sharp knife would be enough to put these boats out of action, but the police are forbidden to interfere.
Occasionally, word comes down to be more proactive, because politicians or journalists are visiting. When this happens, groups of migrants are put on a bus with great ceremony and, once out of sight, are dropped off in downtown Calais to try again another day.
In fact, to keep the flow of migrants moving towards the beaches and boats, their shanty town camps are regularly dismantled, pushing residents into the hands of people smugglers.
The French call it Operation Poseidon, after the Greek god of the sea — and it is utterly shocking because it is providing ‘customers’ for the trafficker trade. The people in and around Calais are appalled by what happened off their coastline this week — French lifeboat crews are describing it as mass murder.
But in Paris and beyond, while there is some soul searching about the human rights aspects of the migrant issue and this tragedy, few people believe Macron is to blame, and the heavily subsidised media are certainly letting their president off the hook.
But make no mistake: if anyone is responsible it is Emmanuel Macron and his government.
Even as the grim search for bodies continued, yesterday, more boats were setting set off from Northern France and the gendarmes stood idly by.
Boris Johnson is reported to be seeking a ‘reset’ in Anglo-French relations, hoping to work towards ‘joint efforts’ in overcoming this human tragedy. I fear this may be wishful thinking.
Macron has long calculated that Brit-bashing is good politics — and he is facing a much trickier 2022 re-election campaign than anticipated. Anti-British rhetoric is, he believes, the key to holding on to the votes of those disaffected with his domestic achievements.
His inner circle — a tightly-knit group of ideological Europe-enthusiasts employed as confidential councillors and ministers — see mileage in redressing 1,000 years of historic wrongs, in which perfidious Albion has usually come out on top.This is a recurring theme in a French elite that has never understood why the French have had a lesser status than the British on the world stage.
It is what is fuelling Macron’s lust for power and revenge, pushing him to new heights of irrationality. It’s what has been dubbed ‘tantrum diplomacy’.
He’s been deep in argument with the Swiss over a failed bid to supply jet fighters; he’s picked a huge public fight with the Australians and Americans over a submarine deal that the French were cut out of; and he ceaselessly lectures the Poles, Hungarians and Czechs on their defiance of the EU’s supremacy and righteousness.
But his over-riding obsession is causing trouble for Britain.
In Dublin, the French embassy is busy proclaiming France to be Ireland’s closest European neighbour, adding to the tensions over the already fraught Northern Ireland Agreement.
In Edinburgh, his diplomats assiduously court the SNP.
His prime minister Jean Castex has written to the EU demanding that Britain be punished for denying fishing licences to French boats — a baseless feud that has at times verged on an all-out trade war, including threats to cut electricity supplies to British-controlled Jersey.
Meanwhile, French diplomats are insisting on rigid interpretations of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, a toxic document that seems only to guarantee endless conflicts and inconveniences, that hurt Europe as much as Britain.
His forthcoming presidency of the European Council, starting in January, will only allow him to stir further mischief by agitating for a common EU defence policy in competition with Nato, which he called ‘brain dead’.
All of this hides the truth from French voters: as he prepares to face the electorate in the first round of the presidential election on April 10 next year, Macron is floundering.
And he sees Britain as the easy scapegoat for all his failings at home.
But his greatest shame is that even as his Brexit-inspired hatred is now proven to be costing lives, this Tinpot Napoleon shows no sign of giving up his bizarre crusade against us, however much Boris Johnson might delude himself otherwise.
Jonathan Miller is the author of France: A Nation On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (Published by Gibson Square Books).
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