Reveals that “the deadline” to reach a fisheries agreement with London will be December 10

MADRID, 29 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, on Monday urged the United Kingdom to assume “its responsibility” in the migration crisis in the English Channel, which has increased tensions between Paris and London on immigration.

In an interview with BFMTV, Darmanin explained that “people who want to apply for asylum in the UK have no other way than to cross the channel”, so he has asked London to open “legal access to immigration”.

“There is no legal route for immigrants to go to the United Kingdom and because they (work) without an identity card,” he asserted, before stressing that, although London “changes its legislation”, that they “assume their responsibilities.”

In this sense, he has been “completely willing” to dialogue with the Executive of Boris Johnson, but there must be a “normal relationship of equal temperament” between the two countries, France Info has collected.

France held a meeting this Sunday with the Netherlands, Belgium and the European Commission to address the issue of the migration crisis in the English Channel, which on Thursday reached its peak with the death of 27 people who had embarked on this route.

Neither the British Interior Minister, Priti Patel, nor any representative of the European country attended the meeting after the French government withdrew the invitation by a letter published late Thursday by Johnson.

In it, he proposed to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, joint maritime patrols to prevent the vessels from leaving the French coasts or an agreement that “allows for the return of all illegal immigrants who cross the channel” and reach British shores.

However, the letter felt badly in the French Executive and Macron came to censure Johnson’s “not serious” methods, for which he declared himself “surprised.”

On the other hand, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, stressed the need to “strengthen cooperation with the British” and pointed out that “people want to go to the United Kingdom because there is an economic model that favors the illegal work, “while stressing that these conditions facilitate” modern slavery. “

THE FISHERIES AGREEMENT AFTER BREXIT

On the other hand, Beaune has referred to the fishing dispute in the English Channel with London and has revealed that “the deadline” to reach an agreement with the United Kingdom after Brexit will be December 10.

“If there is no gesture (…) for December 10, we will stop this dialogue,” Beaune warned in an interview with France Inter.

The Executive of France put on the table a battery of possible sanctions, among them the prohibition of mooring British boats, in response to the reduction of the permits granted to French fishermen to fish in Canal waters. Paris does not rule out either limiting the electricity supply.

The British minister for Brexit, David Frost, has already said that his country is “actively” contemplating the launch of the mechanism for the resolution of disputes stipulated in the exit agreements from the European Union to solve the current fisheries dispute with France.

For its part, the French Government insists that almost half of the license applications submitted by French fishermen have not yet been accepted despite having submitted the documents requested by the British authorities to corroborate compliance with the Brexit agreements. .

Under the Brexit trade agreement reached at the end of 2020, European fishermen can operate in British waters as long as they can demonstrate that they previously operated there.