Fisheries: We’re asking for the agreements to be strictly honoured - PM

Paris, 5 October 2021

It’s not about us making this issue a priority, it’s about the fact that we made protecting our fishermen’s rights a central condition for the successful completion of negotiations on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union. As you said, the agreement signed at the end of 2020 is very clear: it provides for licences to be granted, not only to allow fishing in the UK’s exclusive economic zone but also to enable those who have carried out this activity in the past to fish in the 6-12 mile zone and in the waters of Jersey and Guernsey.

But today it is absolutely clear that the UK is not respecting its own signature. Indeed, every month – and I assure you that my government, particularly the Minister of Marine Affairs and the Minister of State for European Affairs, has been following this issue with all the caution it requires – every month the UK presents new eligibility criteria, refuses certain data point blank, and delays the granting of the permanent licences it should be issuing. Of the 175 licences to which we have the right for the 6-12 mile zone, to date only 100 have been granted and 17 have been flatly refused. For Jersey, out of 216 applications only 116 have been granted, 75 having been rejected.

I say to the nation’s elected representatives in the calmest but most determined way: this attitude is unacceptable, and these failures to comply with the text of the agreements are intolerable. All we want is for the word given on both sides to be honoured. I’m saying it not only to the deputies gathered here and the fishermen – with whom my government, particularly the Marine Affairs Minister, is in permanent contact and for whom we’ve rolled out extremely significant support measures – but also to the elected representatives of the regions concerned, whom the Minister will meet again tomorrow: I’ve already taken up the matter with the European Commission President, because, as you know, it’s the Commission that must ensure compliance with the terms of the agreement. I’m also saying clearly to the National Assembly that the Commission is budging; it must budge more, and more firmly ensure that the commitments made by the UK are honoured.

Consequently, we’re going to ask for the convening of the Partnership Council provided for under Article 4 – let’s be technical – of the Council decision which authorized the Commission to conclude the Brexit agreement. This EU internal law provision must make it possible to punish this serious, repeated breach more effectively and involve the Commission even more in the resolution of this disagreement. I’ll say this: if this it’s inadequate, we’ll refer the matter to the agreement’s arbitration panel to get the British to keep their word. We’ll be questioning – I say this solemnly before you – all the conditions for a more comprehensive implementation of the agreements concluded under the aegis of the European Union, but also, if necessary, the bilateral cooperation we have forged with the UK in many areas.

Going beyond fisheries, a major issue – it’s a matter of principle, a symbolic matter: we’re simply asking for the agreements concluded to be strictly honoured, as we ourselves have undertaken to do./.