Lord Frost warned Brussels today, that Britain will conduct ‘rigorous inspections’ of all EU fishing boats in UK waters, if France threatens British vessels from French ports.
As the UK refuses to grant permission for more French boats to operate in British waters, a raging row over post Brexit fishing licences escalated this past week.
French ministers have said they could block British boats from ports and tighten checks on vessels if the UK does not give in by Tuesday next week.
Lord Frost, the Brexit chief of the Government, met today in London with Maros Selefovic, his EU counterpart to discuss the improvement of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Lord Frost also raised the fishing row as he expressed concern about France’s ‘unjustified’ measures.
Lord Frost warned Brussels today that Britain would conduct ‘rigorous controls’ on all EU fishing vessels in UK waters if France threatens to block British vessels from French ports.
Today, Lord Frost, the Brexit chief of the Government, met with Maros Sfcovic, his EU counterpart in London, for talks about improving the Northern Ireland Protocol
The minister said if France goes ahead with its plans then the EU would be in breach of the Brexit deal and the UK would retaliate by rolling out tougher enforcement action in British waters.
The UK would also like to initiate formal “dispute settlement proceedings” against the bloc.
After the meeting, a spokesperson for the UK Government stated that Lord Frost had also expressed concerns to Vice President about France’s unjustified measures earlier in the week to disrupt UK fishing and wider trade, and to threaten energy supplies. He also said that the UK would not be cooperating further with the EU on Horizon research.
“Lord Frost stated that if these actions were carried out as planned on 2 Nov, they would be a breach of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
“The Government is considering the possibility that in such circumstances, it will launch dispute settlement proceedings under TCA. There are also other practical responses like implementing strict enforcement processes and checks on EU fishery activity in UK territorial water, within the terms and conditions of the TCA.
As the UK refuses to grant permission for more French boats to work on British waters, a rumbling dispute over post-Brexit fishing licenses escalated this week.
After the meeting, a spokesperson for the European Commission stated that the Vice President encouraged the UK and France to continue discussions in order to quickly resolve the issue of pending fishing licenses. All French vessels entitled should be issued a licence.
Today’s meeting was centered on negotiations to improve the post-Brexit border rules for Northern Ireland.
The UK claimed that this week’s talks about the protocol were ‘conducted with a constructive spirit’, but that the ‘the United Kingdom’ was not able to confirm it.We still have significant gaps between us,” and more talks will be held in Brussels next week.