FRANCE’S stated intention to take legal action to try to obtain more fishing licences will ‘further sour the relationship’ with Jersey, the Environment Minister has said.
Deputy John Young warned that Jersey was ready to ‘defend our position’ after senior French ministers asked the European Commission to take further action to force the Island and the UK to issue more licences.
Last week, Virginijus Sinkevicius, the European Commission’s fisheries commissioner, announced that the list of vessels permitted to fish in Island waters had been finalised.
At the time, it was hoped that all parties involved in the dispute would finally be able to move to the issue of the suspended nature and extent clause – a part of the agreement which governs which species individual vessels can target and their catch limits.
Instead, it was this week revealed that Clément Beaune, France’s Europe Minister, would call on the European Commission to ‘initiate a formal dispute’ and activate the Brexit deal’s partnership council, a body formed to try to resolve disagreements related to the agreement.
In response to the news, Deputy Young said: ‘That will further sour the whole relationship and make the problem hugely more complex. If that happens, it means that our resources will have to be dedicated to responding to that and, as far as I am concerned, we will use all the resources we have got to defend our position.
‘We have absolutely and scrupulously followed the agreement to the letter. Whatever happens it does not change the situation that France does not like it but we are trying to make it work.’
The long-running dispute has seen the Gallic nation make regular threats against Jersey, with warnings that the Island’s electricity supply could be cut while, in May, dozens of French fishermen staged a protest in St Helier Harbour.
Deputy Young added that he had attempted to use diplomacy when working to finalise the list of vessels that were permitted to fish in Jersey waters but that this appeared not to have worked.
‘I thought we had got to the point where a line had been drawn under the licences. From what we can see now, that is almost certainly not the case and that is really bad news and it is something that I am really unhappy about.
‘When I approved those extra five licences, it was on the basis that a line would be drawn under the argument over licences,’ he said.
‘While that seems to not be the case, we have said we will honour those additional five licences so we will honour them.
‘We stick to our word,’ he added.
