France Says U.K. Fishing License Refusals Breach Brexit Deal
- Dispute focuses on number of licenses issued for small boats
- French fishermen may protest decision, reignite simmering feud
A boat with fishing equipment returns to port at St Helier, on the isle of Jersey, on May 9.
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
France warned that the U.K. is in breach of the Brexit deal after it denied several small European Union fishing boats access to its territorial waters, ratcheting up diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
“It’s a new refusal by the British to implement the conditions of the Brexit agreement despite all the work we have done together,” France’s sea minister Annick Girardin said in a statement late on Tuesday. “French fishing should not be taken hostage by the British for political reasons.”