The fisheries row is intensifying between Downing Street and Brussels, with the UK standing firm, that the government will take back our fishing grounds.
Furthermore, a no-deal Brexit is looking increasingly likely amid the trade talks standoff, and EU fishermen are preparing for the worse as they will be forced to fish in congested fishing grounds.
Brussels keep demanding access to British fishing grounds or access to the European market will be denied.
This week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the EU that the UK are prepared to walk away from the trade talks as Brussels keep insisting on state aid demands.
French fishermen have warned of “reprisals” if they lose access UK waters.
One captain based in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France’s most important fishing port, warned “Macron mustn’t give an inch to Britain.”
French Farm Minister Didier Guillaume added, that it would be “very, very grave” if French fishing boats are banned from British waters, and should this happen, then there would be “reprisals.”
Jan Buisseret, commercial manager at Ostend auction in Belgium warned, “It will mean that the whole fleet of Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Ireland will fish in the coast close to Europe.
“But there is no room for everyone. If we have rights to fish in British areas, the Brits will have the rights to sell their products here in Europe because they do not have fleets, they do not have the same consumption of fish as we have.”
The UK’s chief negotiator David Frost said in August, “The EU is still insisting not only that we must accept continuity with EU state aid and fisheries policy, but also that this must be agreed before any further substantive work can be done in any other area of the negotiation, including on legal texts.
“This makes it unnecessarily difficult to make progress.”
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