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European Commission calls for calm over Jersey fishing dispute

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Following the recent rise in tensions over fishing licenses linked to the waters surrounding Jersey, the European Commission has called for calm and for the UK to comply with the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. 

Commission spokesperson Vivian Loonela said: “The situation where we are is that on the 13 April, we were notified by the UK authorities that they had granted 41 licences to EU vessels who are fishing in Jersey’s territorial waters, but there were additional conditions set to these licenses (for 17 of the applications). 

“We have seen that the provisions of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) that we recently agreed have not been respected. According to the agreement, any new specific conditions that limit fishing in UK waters need to comply with the objectives and principles set out in the TCA, but also have to have a clear scientific rationale and those conditions have to be non-discriminatory between the UK and EU vessels,” Loonela added, “Any new conditions have to be notified in advance to the other party, so that there is sufficient time to assess and to react to the proposed measures. We have indicated that until we have received further justifications from the UK authorities, we consider that these new conditions should not apply.”  

Asked whether the French threat to cut off Jersey’s electricity supply was proportional, a further Commission spokesperson, Daniel Ferrie, who deals with all Brexit related questions said that the all parties had to respect the dispute resolution procedures laid down in the TCA agreement.

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