Britain’s Brexit minister was yesterday due in Paris for talks on a fishing rights crisis that has further strained already tense relations.
The meeting comes a day after a French court released a British trawler impounded for a week as part of the deepening dispute.
British Chief Negotiator of Task Force Europe David Frost is to sit down with French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune to continue negotiations after several days of tense exchanges.
Photo: AFP
Frost is a staunch defender of Brexit, while Beaune is a close ally of French President Emmanuel Macron, who is not shy of making clear his belief that France should not pay for what he sees as Britain’s mistake of leaving the EU.
The two have also sparred on social media. Their meeting was set to be held behind closed doors and no news conference was planned.
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said there would also be a European Commission meeting on the issue during a visit by Frost today, but that was yet to be confirmed by Brussels.
On Wednesday evening, the impounded trawler, the Cornelis Gert Jan, left the French northern port of Le Havre after receiving permission to leave, a correspondent for Agence France-Presse said.
Its captain, Jondy Ward, still faces charges of gathering two tons of scallops in French waters without a proper license, but the lawyer for the ship’s captain, Mathieu Croix, said that a court in the nearby city of Rouen had allowed it to leave without posting any financial guarantee.
The court rejected the state’s demand that the trawler remain impounded until a 150,000 euros (US$173,302) bond had been deposited, he said.
“It is a good decision, of a kind that will allow the tensions to drop,” the lawyer said. “French justice is independent from political pressure.”
Ward, who was present in court for the hearing, afterward joined his seven crew members to begin the journey back, smiling for journalists on the shore.
The captain still faces a trial in Le Havre on Aug. 11 next year on charges of non-authorized fishing in French waters by a boat from outside the EU, which carry a maximum fine of 75,000 euros.
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