France will go to litigation if it does not get its licenses from the UK, says Annick Girardin

The tone is rising between Paris and London. French Minister of the Sea, Annick Girardin, warned that if all the post-Brexit fishing licenses still claimed in the United Kingdom were not granted by Friday evening, France would go “to litigation”. “France will request the meeting of the partnership council”, supposed to guarantee the application of the post-Brexit agreement, “to note the non-respect of its signature by the United Kingdom”, declared Annick Girardin during a hearing in the Senate Thursday, December 9. She added: “It is the Commission which will carry the litigation and the retaliatory measures if they were to be implemented.”

For its part, the United Kingdom replied that it did not recognize the Friday deadline set by the European Union. “We never set a deadline”Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said. “They’ve fixed one but it’s not the one we’re working on.”

The European Commission has asked the United Kingdom to settle the post-Brexit dispute over fishing licenses by Friday. In this case, no one is satisfied. French fishermen feel cheated, Paris raised the tone, asking the Commission to be “more active”, and London procrastinates, not hearing its conduct dictated by a Europe it has chosen to leave.