Guernsey joins in remote meeting on fishing dispute
THE States was again closely following developments in the Anglo-French fishing row yesterday with the island pulled into a meeting with the EU, France, the UK and Jersey.
States of Guernsey senior external relations officers attended yesterday’s remote meeting with European Commission officials – with the Policy & Resources and Economic Development committees kept abreast of the discussions.
Representatives from Jersey, France and the UK also attended, as the European Commission said it hoped the meeting would bring a ‘swift solution on the outstanding issues’.
The row has seen threats by the French government to cut electricity supplied to Jersey and then Guernsey via a sub-sea cable network as well as preventing British fisherman from landing their catches in the country – although the States of Guernsey has consistently sounded a reassuring message about any impact locally.
Meanwhile, the UK has threatened legal action against France while Jersey’s government yesterday confirmed that it would issue dozens of temporary fishing licences for French boats to fish in its waters.
‘The States of Guernsey continues to have a good relationship with our regional partners in Normandy and Brittany,’ said Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq, the Policy & Resources Committee’s lead for external relations.
‘We recently announced a “roadmap” to transition from the current interim authorisation to a new licensing arrangement in line with the requirements of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which was welcomed by the regional Normandy authorities at the annual political summit in September.’
The roadmap laid out the steps needed to be taken before licences could be issued and take effect, said Deputy Le Tocq.
‘We continue to work on making this transition, working closely with the UK and the European Commission. However, we are following all developments closely in terms of the unilateral measures laid out by France and will provide further updates where relevant as they move forward,’ he added.
