4 years ago Macron tried to snatch more of the UK’s fish but faced Boris and Frost and lost – ‘Five days that took Brexit to the brink’ : Part Ia

Two weeks today, will Sir Kier’s ‘Great EU Reset Summit’ give Macron the chance for payback?

A timely reminder of what the French have been like over fishing

Two weeks today, Sir Keir’s ‘Great EU Reset Summit’ will start. It does so against a background of weeks of leaks about some EU leaders, notably President Macron of France, said to be demanding a UK surrender over extending the already disastrous EU-UK fishing deal.

The last time a major fishing dispute with President Macron happened was four years ago. For six weeks the behaviour and statements of the President and his Government became increasingly hostile and threatening. Back then, the UK won, thanks to the steadfastness of Boris Johnson amd his Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost.

In this series we look back at those events of four years ago and ask:

 “Will Sir Keir stand firm or will our waters be traded away under French threats?“

EU fishing bonanza – UK issues licences to 1,700 EU boats to fish in UK waters

And 117 of these can now sail up to 6 miles from the UK coast to take British fish

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2021

The latest shocking post-Brexit figures leave UK fishermen reeling

Brexit was supposed to have delivered control of the UK’s territorial waters back to the United Kingdom. On 28 September (2021), however, official figures released by the British Government showed just how shallow this promise turned out to be, thanks to the demands of the EU during the exit negotiations.

Since 01 January 2021, almost 1,700 licences had been issued to EU27 fishing vessels to enter British waters (within 200 nautical miles). 117 of these are able to sail up to six miles from the United Kingdom’s shores to ply their trade, with more expected soon.

Of the 1,700 EU27 vessels, some are the notorious ‘EU factory ships’ which are alleged to cause major damage to fishing stocks and to the marine environment by ‘hoovering up’ everything from the sea bed.

It’s 28 Sept 2021 and 1,681 EU27 fishing vessels can now enter UK waters

• FRANCE 44%
• Ireland 22%
• Netherlands 11%
• Denmark 7%
• Spain 5%
• Belgium 4%
• Germany 3%
• Portugal 3%
• Sweden 1%

© Facts4EU.Org

NOTE, 04 May 2025 : The above was the position in September 2021. The numbers changed after that, as we shall show in a subsquent part of this story.

British waters, still open to the EU27

From the “A La Garde de Dieu” to the “Zuidersee” (from Belgium), the details of the 1,681 EU27 registered fishing vessels which now have the right to enter the UK’s ‘Exclusive Economic Zone’ and UK territorial waters can all be analysed, thanks to the agreements the Government was required to sign up to by the EU Commission.

A UK Government spokesperson said:

“The government has this year issued a large number of licences to EU vessels seeking to fish in our exclusive economic zone (12-200 nautical mile zone) and our territorial sea (6-12 nautical mile zone). our approach has been reasonable and fully in line with our commitments in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).”

The French are still complaining, despite all of this

One of the many complaints made by President Macron and his government since Brexit has been that the UK is deliberately ‘holding up’ the issuing of licences to French fishing boats to fish in British waters.

In reality, our analysis shows that 738 licences have been issued to French vessels in the past nine months. This is 44% of the entire EU27 total.

Only 35 small vessels from the entire EU27 fleet have been refused licences – and this is only in relation to the 6-12 nautical miles of territorial waters off the British coast. The reason is that these vessels were unable to prove they had been fishing that close to the UK’s coastline while the UK was still a member of the EU. If they provide the appropriate paperwork, they too will be granted licences.

Rule Britannia?

For centuries Great Britain has had a worldwide reputation as a maritime nation. One of the benefits of Brexit was supposed to have been the return of control of our own waters to its rightful place. It is deeply regrettable that this has not happened, thanks to the onerous demands from the EU and in particular the French.

THE STORY CONTINUES…

In the next instalment we show further information about how it is France that has benefited most amongst EU nations from the issuance of licences to fish in UK waters. All of this is highly relevant to the upcoming ‘Great Reset Summit’ being hosted by Sir Keir Starmer on 19 May (2025).