France threatens to cut Britain’s POWER in bitter row over Jersey fishing permits

Now France threatens to cut Britain’s POWER in bitter row over fishing permits for Jersey as minister warns Boris: ‘You can’t live alone and bash Europe’

  • France and UK embroiled in stand-off over Jersey fishing rights for French boats
  • Paris minister Clement Beaune pointed out Britain depends on Europe for energy
  • Jersey only gave 12 French boats licences after Brexit as others lacked evidence  


France has threatened to cut Britain’s power in a dramatic escalation of the bitter row over Jersey fishing permits.

Europe minister Clement Beaune engaged in the extraordinary sabre-rattling as he accused the UK of failing to implement the Brexit deal.

Paris was infuriated when Jersey only granted licences to 12 small French boats out of 47 applications this summer – with warnings that vessels could mount a blockade.  

Mr Beaune went further this morning, pointedly observing that the UK depends on energy exports across the Channel.  

‘Enough already, we have an agreement negotiated by France, by Michel Barnier, and it should be applied 100 percent. It isn’t being,’ he told Europe 1 radio.

France has threatened to cut Britain’s power in a dramatic escalation of the bitter row over Jersey fishing permits (pictured, French boats protest off St Helier in June  

Europe minister Clement Beaune engaged in extraordinary sabre-rattling as he accused the UK of failing to implement the Brexit deal

Europe minister Clement Beaune engaged in extraordinary sabre-rattling as he accused the UK of failing to implement the Brexit deal

‘In the next few days, and I talked to my European counterparts on this subject yesterday, we will take measures at the European level or nationally, to apply pressure on the United Kingdom.’

He added: ‘We defend our interests. We do it nicely, and diplomatically, but when that doesn’t work, we take measures.

‘For example, we can imagine, since we’re talking about energy, … the United Kingdom depends on our energy supplies,’ Beaune also said. ‘It thinks that it can live all alone, and bash Europe.’

Fishing rights were one of the key battlegrounds between Britain and France in their post-Brexit negotiations. 

Earlier this year, a dispute over the licences led both France and Britain to send patrol vessels off the shores of Jersey, which is a self-governing British Crown Dependency. 

Diplomatic relations between the countries have hit a low point in recent weeks.

Last month Boris Johnson told France to ‘prenez un grip’ and ‘donnez moi un break’ in the row about the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal that tore up a separate French contract.   

Britain says the majority of the vessels were denied licences because they failed to provide evidence that they had fished in the six-to-12-mile nautical zone in the years before the UK’s referendum on leaving the EU.  

Jersey external relations minister Ian Gorst said the island’s government had taken ‘a pragmatic, reasonable and evidence-based approach’ to the issue.  

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk