Paris will ask the European Commission to open post-Brexit litigation proceedings against Britain over a long-running dispute on fishing licenses for French boats in British waters.
France’s European affairs minister, Clement Beaune said after President Emmanuel Macron met fishing representatives and local officials on Friday and revealed that in the coming days, the European Commission will launch litigation, a legal procedure, for the licenses the country is entitled to.
French fishermen say Britain and the Channel Island of Jersey, a British crown dependency, are holding back on licenses for French boats that had been allowed to ply their waters for years before Britain left the EU.
Reports however show that the dispute has sparked the possibility of an all-out trade war, with fishermen in northern France vowing this week to step up protests and block British boats from French ports along the Channel coast.
Britain agreed to issue an additional 23 licenses to French fishermen on Saturday, but France believes it is entitled to around 80 more UK licenses.
