French fishermen threaten to block Channel amid post-Brexit licences row
French fishermen have reportedly threatened to block Channel trade after president Emmanuel Macron failed to align European governments on how to tackle British fishing licences.
“We were promised to be able to go fishing in English waters, but since January 1, it’s forbidden to us. We’re losing 50 per cent of our income,” Pierre-Yves Dachicourt, a French fisherman from the northern Channel town of Boulogne, told the Telegraph.
“We’re going to consider direct action, because this has to end,” he added “We can’t live like that.”
The French president attempted to use economic sanctions last week to push Britain to grant all the fishing licences sought by fishermen across the Channel.
“We call on the United Kingdom to provide a response as soon as possible and to engage in further technical work in accordance with the spirit and the letter of the Agreement,” France, alongside Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands, said in a statement.
Without the licences, it means that French fishing vessels are being locked out of the scallop-rich waters of the English Channel, as Britain is asking for ‘too much’ documentation to prove fisherman had used the waters prior to Brexit.
The added bureaucracy has made it particularly hard to continue with smaller fishing operations.