Ball in Britain’s court: Emmanuel Macron says about fishing standoff

The French President says the UK must give ground or Paris will trigger trade reprisals this week.

Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson are all smiles with Food and Agriculture Organisation chief Qu Dongyu during the visit to the Trevi fountain in Rome on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday night Britain must give ground in a post-Brexit fishing dispute or France will trigger trade reprisals this week, saying: “The ball is in Britain’s court”.

He had earlier met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome over a row over fishing rights that threatens to turn into a full-blown trade war.

Mr Macron’s office said the leaders had agreed to work on “practical and operational measures” to resolve the dispute in the coming days, and were united on the need for a “de-escalation”.

But Downing Street denied any such agreement, and insisted it was up to Paris to back down on a threat to trigger trade reprisals against British fishing catches and other goods from Tuesday.

“If the British make no movement, the measures of November 2 will have to be put in place,” Mr Macron said. He “hoped there would be a positive response tomorrow”. “I want no escalation, but we must be serious.”

Mr Johnson stressed that Britain and France were “longstanding allies and friends”, but added: “On fish, I’ve got to tell you, the position is unchanged.”

France is incensed that Britain and the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey have not issued some French boats with licences to fish in their waters since Brexit took full effect at the start of 2021.

Paris has vowed that unless licences are approved, it will ban UK boats from unloading their catches at French ports from Tuesday and impose checks on all products from Britain.

Earlier on Saturday, Mr Johnson’s spokesman said: “If the French government want to come forward with proposals to de-escalate the threats they have made, we would absolutely welcome them.” He stressed the UK would continue to process applications by French and other EU fishing vessels to fish in its waters based solely on technical data.

Last week French authorities detained the Scottish-registered scallop dredger Cornelis Gert Jan in Le Havre. Paris’s ambassador in London was summoned to the Foreign Office for the type of dressing down usually reserved for hostile states, not allies.

Mr Johnson’s focus in the Macron meeting was on persuading the EU to amend a post-Brexit protocol governing trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He was “puzzled” by a strongly worded letter from French Prime Minister Jean Castex, urging EU chief Ursula von der Leyen to punish Britain.

“I don’t believe that that is compatible with either the spirit or the letter of the Withdrawal Agreement or the Trade and Cooperation Agreement,” he said.

Mr Johnson told Ms von der Leyen the French threats were “completely unjustified”.

London is warning it could activate a Brexit dispute tool for the first time, exposing all of the EU to potential UK trade measures, if France executes its threatened actions on Tuesday.

AFP