aAs British Prime Minister Boris Johnson greeted French President Emmanuel Macron at the climate conference in Glasgow on Monday, nothing was noticed: a casual touch on the arm, as if two old friends were meeting each other again. At that moment, two government chiefs who had just given an ultimatum to the other met. Macron had asked Johnson the night before to correct the licensing policy for French fishermen within 24 hours, or else Paris would put sanctions into effect, including a mooring ban for British fishermen, additional controls on trucks at the canal border and an increase in electricity prices. for the British Channel Islands.
As a result, the British government gave the French 48 hours on Monday morning to withdraw their threats. Otherwise, London will take legal action and trigger the dispute mechanism agreed in the UK-Europe Trade Agreement. Joint efforts to take action against global warming have failed to calm the atmosphere in the regional trade dispute. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Monday spoke of “completely inappropriate threats” from Paris and called on the French to “surrender”.
The French MP for Calais, Pierre-Henri Dumont, announced on the BBC that the government in Paris would “negotiate harder” “to allow the British to understand that fishing rights are very important to us and that part of the deal was so”. He threatened to stop accepting British scallops, not to allow cutters from the UK to dock on the French coast and also to include the British Channel Islands’ energy supply in “retaliatory measures”. “This is on the table,” he said.
Johnson “astonished” by letter to von der Leyen
Johnson had asked the European Union over the weekend to invite France to order because its actions affect the union as a whole. Johnson referred in particular to a letter sent by French Prime Minister Jean Castex to the President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. In it, Castex demanded that the British fulfill their contractual obligations and concluded the letter by saying that the European public should be “shown” that leaving the EU would do more harm than being a member. Johnson said at a press conference on the G20 summit in Rome that this paragraph “surprised him”. “I have to say to everyone, I don’t think this is in line with the Withdrawal Agreement and the UK-Europe Trade Treaty – neither spirit nor letter.”
The European Union has remained out of the limelight so far, but Commission Vice President Maros Ševović is in talks with Brexit Secretary David Frost this week. In an article for the Daily Telegraph, Shivovich did not mention the fishing license dispute, but expressed his “growing concern” that Britain was not negotiating the Northern Ireland Protocol in a constructive manner and was “heading down a confrontational path”.
In addition to fishing licenses, implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol is another major area of conflict left over from the Brexit agreements. In his article, Sevsowicz again promoted recently made EU proposals for practical improvements in Northern Ireland’s trade situation, calling them “a package of improved opportunities”.
So far, London has taken the view that the proposals have been insufficient. The fragile situation in Northern Ireland returned to focus on Monday when two masked and armed men hijacked and set a bus in Newtownards on fire; Nobody gets hurt. According to local media reports, the two men were referring to the Northern Ireland protocol in their act. The ruling Democratic Unionist Party in Belfast had demanded approval of substantive changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol on Monday.
“Award-winning music trailblazer. Gamer. Lifelong alcohol enthusiast. Thinker. Passionate analyst.”