EU Ambassador João Vale de Almeida said he hoped to avoid repetition of unilateral measures such as the threat to cut off Jersey’s electricity supply, made last month by France’s maritime minister Annick Girardin as the row over post-Brexit fishing arrangements escalated.
Giving evidence to the House of Lords European Affairs Committee yesterday, Mr Vale de Almeida said that mechanisms within the Brexit withdrawal agreement provided the best way to resolve issues.
The ambassador’s comments came with less than a week to go until the 1 July deadline by which French fishermen have been asked to provide historical data in order to obtain licences to fish in Jersey waters.
Assistant Environment Minister Gregory Guida said last week that no further data had been received, prompting a warning from one Island fisherman that tensions could erupt again.
In early May around 60 French fishing vessels staged a blockade of the Harbour to protest against the new system.
The dispute prompted the threat regarding the electricity supply from the French Maritime Minister, while UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson deployed Royal Navy vessels to the waters off Jersey. The issue was defused, temporarily at least, following a call between Mr Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron and the imposition of a two-month extension, due to expire on 1 July, to the new licensing regime.
‘The fishing rights, I think, it is a good example of where we did not start well and we should aim to go back to the normal procedures,’ Mr Vale de Almeida said.
He added: ‘The methodology overall is for us to use the instruments that we created and the bodies we set up within the withdrawal agreement.
‘It’s quite a complex governing structure we realise, but it’s the one that will allow us to address the issues in a consensual way, in a co-operative way – we want to avoid unilateral measures.’
Mr Vale de Almeida said he was encouraged by a recent agreement between the EU and UK regarding total allowable catch limits for 2021.
He said: ‘This is a good basis for future years in terms of the fishing rights and we all know this is always a controversial issue.
‘We have some tensions around Jersey about fishing licences but I hope that the atmosphere we created by this agreement on the total catches for 2021 will put us on the right trajectory in terms of finding – within our agreements, within our procedures, in a consensual and joint way – solutions to these problems.’
