France, along with seven other EU countries, asked the European Commission, on Tuesday 30 April, to assess the measures taken by the United Kingdom with regard to fishing bans, in order to evaluate the possibility of imposing sanctions on the country which withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020.
On 22 March, the UK decided to ban bottom fishing in 13 of its marine protected areas. This measure applies to both British and EU fishers.
Jean-Noël Barrot, the French Minister Delegate for Europe, said on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the informal General Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, that the British decisions had “affected” the fishing fleets, particularly those of France and Denmark.
On the same day, the minister met his counterparts in the ‘Atlantic + format’ (Belgium, Spain, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden) following the introduction of restrictive measures by the UK.
“The British measures affect the interests of the fishing fleet in a way that may appear discriminatory”, particularly for the French fleet. It is therefore appropriate, in the context of the EU/UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, to call on the Commission “to mobilise the tools at its disposal and to assess the appropriateness of taking countermeasures”, explained Mr Barrot.
Article 494 of this agreement authorises the implementation of “proportionate and non-discriminatory” measures for the conservation of living marine resources.
Last February, Denmark and Sweden asked the Commission to take action against the United Kingdom, following the latter’s decision to close sandeel fishing in part of the Dogger Bank. On 16 April, the Commission launched the dispute settlement procedure for the trade agreement in order to find common ground on the sandeel fishery (see EUROPE 13392/32). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur and Mathieu Bion)