Both French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted after their one-on-one talk in Rome on Sunday that the other side would break the Brexit agreement and would have to give in.
This means that the time until a French ultimatum expires on Tuesday is running out. Paris wants to initiate tough measures in the case, London threatens with a reaction that would also affect the EU. The dispute threatens to overshadow the UN climate summit COP26 in Glasgow.
Paris accuses London of denying numerous French fishermen licenses for British waters contrary to the Brexit agreement. If no agreement is reached by November 2, France has announced that it will close some ports to British fishermen and tighten controls on British boats and trucks. Great Britain rejects the allegations.
The French media reported on Sunday, citing the Elyse Palace, that Macron had asked Johnson to “abide by the rules of the game and his signature” under the Brexit treaty. Accordingly, it went on to say that Paris saw the dispute as a Brexit issue between London and the EU, “even if Boris Johnson is still trying to make this a Franco-British issue”.
Downing Street said Johnson was “deeply concerned” and had urged Macron to de-escalate during the half-hour discussion on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome.
British boat arrested
A British government spokesman, according to the BBC, contradicted information from the Elyse that Macron and Johnson had decided to work on practical measures to de-escalate in the next few days. No joint measures had been decided, the BBC quoted the spokesman as saying. It is up to France to withdraw its “deeply worrying” threats and rhetoric. Most recently, the French authorities had arrested a British boat that allegedly fished illegally in French waters.
France’s Secretary of State for Europe, Clment Beaune, accused Great Britain of taking targeted action against France. 90 percent of the applications from EU fishermen have been approved, tweeted the Macron confidante. But all the missing permits concern French boats. “After 10 months in which so many licenses for a country are missing, this is not a technical problem, but a political decision and a violation of (the Brexit treaty),” tweeted Beaune. Great Britain rejects this. There are a few dozen boats that cannot produce the required evidence.
Previously, President Macron had declared the conflict to be a test of London’s sincerity. “If you negotiate a contract for years and a few months later do the opposite of what was decided in the areas that you least like, that’s not a great sign of credibility,” Macron told the Financial Times (Saturday) . That is being watched closely around the world.
Prime Minister Jean Castex turned to the EU Commission for assistance. According to British media, Castex wrote to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the European public must be shown that it is non-negotiable to stick to signed agreements and that it is more harmful to leave the EU than to stay in it.
Johnson, on the other hand, threatened to activate the dispute settlement mechanism agreed in the Brexit treaty and thus aggravate the conflict. After a meeting with Johnson in Rome, EU Commission President von der Leyen announced that the Brussels authority was working hard to find solutions.
