Royal Navy on Standby After the French Seize Scottish Fishing Trawler

The UK Government has stated that it will respond in turn if France continues with its trend of threatening the UK with various actions, such as shutting off electricity to the Channel Islands, amid post-Brexit fishing rights disagreements. Amid the escalation of threats from the continent, the Environment Secretary has warned that “two can play at that game.”

This most recent escalation of tensions was sparked when French authorities seized the Scottish scallop trawler ‘Cornelis Gert Jan’, owned by Macduff Shellfish, before impounding it at the French port of Le Havre. 

The French authorities claimed that the vessel did not have a licence, however, the UK government’s Environment Secretary George Eustice claimed that the boat had been granted a licence at the start of the year and is. Noting that he was in the process of “trying to get to the bottom” of why the trawler had been taken off of the licenses list provided to the EU, Eustice suggested, perhaps, that there had been changes to the vessel’s engine that may warrant a renewal. 

According to France, the captain of the vessel must now face court proceedings and reportedly faces criminal charges and a fine that would equate to over £63,000. Namely, the captain is faced with the charge of committing “acts of unauthorised sea fishing in French maritime salt waters by a third party vessel to the European Union,” with the prosecutor adding “after verification, the captain of the vessel did not have the authorisation required to fish in the French exclusive economic zone.”

The captain, however, claimed that the vessel was being used as a pawn in the fishing dispute before criticising the “politically motivated” French.

Meanwhile, France has said that it could stop British boats from landing on its shores if the ongoing dispute over fishing licenses for French fishing boats was not resolved by Tuesday, with the Environment Secretary George Eustice stating:

“We think that the comments that have been made by France on this are completely disproportionate, they are unacceptable. The things that they are suggesting doing which is basically starting to be difficult at the borders and close ports and so on, this is a clear breach not only of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement that we have got with them but also of EU law, the official control regime. We don't really think it is justified at all because this is a very small number of vessels that just don't qualify under the terms of the agreement that was reached. And so what we are asking France to do is obviously try to calm this down and remove these threats, they are not acceptable.”

The French ambassador to the United Kingdom has been summoned by the Foreign Office today to explain the French government’s actions to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. However, speaking to the BBC, Eustice revealed that he believed the action to be insufficient, suggesting that the discussion should be held at the highest level - meaning with the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Both Johnson and French president Macron will be in attendance at the COP26 Climate change conference in which Downing Street has suggested there may be a “brush by” meeting to discuss the escalating tensions.