UK sends Royal Navy to patrol Jersey port amid fishing row
By George Bowden
BBC News
- Published
The UK will send two Royal Navy patrol vessels to monitor a protest in waters around Jersey's main port amid a fishing rights row with France.
PM Boris Johnson said "any blockade would be completely unjustified" as over 100 French fishing boats prepare to sail to the island on Thursday.
It came after the French government threatened to cut off Jersey's electricity over a post-Brexit dispute.
The row emerged over a new licensing system for French fishing vessels.
The system - introduced by the Government of Jersey under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) - requires French boats to show they have a history of fishing in Jersey's waters.
But French authorities said "new technical measures" for fishing off the Channel Islands had not been communicated to the EU, rendering them "null and void".
Mr Johnson pledged his "unwavering support" for the island, a Crown dependency 14 miles (22km) off France in the English Channel.
No 10 said that the Navy vessels would be deployed as a "precautionary measure".
The prime minister held talks with Jersey's Chief Minister John Le Fondré and Minister of External Affairs Ian Gorst, and "stressed the urgent need for a de-escalation in tensions" between Jersey and France.
The AFP news agency reported that about 100 French fishing vessels would sail to Jersey's port on Thursday as part of a protest against the new rules, quoting the head of fisheries for the Normandy region, Dimitri Rogoff.
Mr Rogoff said the vessels would not try to block the port at St Helier and would return to France in the afternoon, AFP reported.
Electricity threat
The threat to cut off Jersey's electricity supply - 95% of which is delivered by underwater cables from France - was made by French Maritime Minister Annick Girardin.
She told the French parliament that new rules governing access to Channel Islands waters were unacceptable - and that France was "ready to use... retaliatory measures".
"I am sorry it has come to this [but] we will do so if we have to," she said.