PARIS (Reuters) – France is still short of about 150 post-Brexit fishing licences, Maritime Minister Annick Girardin said on Friday, holding out the prospect of financial compensation for affected fishermen as talks on the matter continue.
Tension over the licences prompted both nations to dispatch maritime vessels off the shores of Jersey this year, with France briefly seizing in October a British fishing boat that had been in its waters.
“We will continue to fight every day to get what should be ours and so that those 150 licences arrive,” Girardin told France Inter radio.
The dispute centres on the issuance of licences to fish in territorial waters six to 12 nautical miles off Britain’s shores, as well as in the seas off Jersey, a crown dependency in the English Channel.
The neighbours have been at loggerheads over the number of licences London allocated to French fishing boats after Britain left the European Union. France says many are missing, while London says it is respecting the deal.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
