The UK and the EU’s negotiating teams have been locked in intensified talks for months now. This week, the two sides are negotiating in London for a crunch round of talks, with EU leaders warning of the need to make “big progress” to avert a possible no deal by the end of the month. Despite optimism at the start of November, both sides say daily meetings have produced little progress on the fundamental blockages that have dogged an agreement since the start of the year.
Fishing, championed by French President Emmanuel Macron, remains one of the sticking points in the talks.
Even before the negotiations on a future trade deal started, the French government made it clear to the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier that he had to push for stronger commitments on regulatory alignments and access to UK fishing waters in return for maintaining free trade.
As he arrived at a summit of EU leaders last month, Mr Macron said: “In no case shall our fishermen be sacrificed for Brexit.”
However, a European Commission put together by Eurostat suggests the French might be exaggerating how important UK fishing rights are to them.
Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City.
The report says 60 percent of all fishing is done around UK waters, in the North East Atlantic.
Macron’s mask slips as EU report exposes REAL importance of France’s fishing sector (Image: GETTY)
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier (Image: GETTY)
Yet, the entire fisheries industry only employs 180,000 jobs in the EU.
More importantly, in France, the fishing sector is worth less than the art business at €1.4billion (£1.2billion) a year.
In 2018, French fishing fleets caught 587,525 tonnes of fish, whereas British fishing fleets caught 696,992 tonnes.
France’s percentage of EU-28 total gross tonnage was 11.4 percent while Britain’s was 12.4 percent.
When measured by gross tonnage, Spain had by far the largest fishing fleet among member states (21.4 percent of the EU total).
This suggests the fishing industry is incredibly small in France, since they catch even fewer fish than the UK.
Their number of vessels is also low compared to other member states.
In 2018, Greece had the largest fleet (18.2 percent of all vessels), followed by Italy (14.7 percent) and Spain (11 percent).
The 2019 report says: “By way of comparison, the overall holding capacity of the Norwegian fishing fleet was the largest in Europe.
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French President Emmanuel Macron (Image: GETTY)
Where a no deal Brexit would hit hardest (Image: EXPRESS.CO.UK)
“It was also considerably more powerful than that of any EU member state. In the case of Iceland, despite having a much smaller fleet (1600 vessels in 2018) than France and Italy, the overall holding capacity (gross tonnage) was very similar.”
In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell shed light on the real reason behind the French leader’s aggressive stance.
He said: “French fishermen are a small but very active lobby group within France.
“A bit like French farmers, they have a clout, a political power beyond their actual numbers.
“I can understand why Macron is playing hardball. He is not doing too well in terms of popularity in those fishing regions at the moment and bashing the Brits never plays badly.
“However, fundamentally, no self-respecting country can agree to the terms he is seeking, and I think he knows that.”
Mr Carswell added: “He is worried about getting re-elected, that is for sure.
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Fishing vessel (Image: GETTY)
Former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell (Image: EXPRESS.CO.UK)
“Like so many French Presidents he came in with really high hopes and to be fair to him, he has done something absolutely right in the way he responded to terrorist attacks.
“But, fundamentally, Macron is doing what all French Presidents have done with the overbearing nature of the French regulatory state.
“Trying to stimulate the French economy is a very difficult task and to have the French fisherman antagonising him at the same time must not be easy.”
In a recent report, the head of Oxford-based think-tank Euro Intelligence Wolfgang Munchau echoed Mr Carswell’s claims, arguing that with his Brexit fishing stance, the French President might be fighting for his political life.
He wrote: “As in the UK, the fishing industry’s economic contribution is small in France.
“Total sales were around €2billion (£1.8billion) in 2016, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) statistics show that less than 14,000 people were employed in the fishing sector in 2018. Employment in fishing has fallen by eight percent since 2011. But fishing, like agriculture, is symbolically important in France. And northern French fishermen take the majority of their catch from British waters.
President of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand (Image: RMC)
“Macron might be worried about Xavier Bertrand, a high-profile former member of Les Républicains and potential 2022 candidate who is close with the industry.”
He continued: “Bertrand is president of the Hauts-de-France region. He served as health minister under Jacques Chirac and labour minister under Nicolas Sarkozy.
“Last month, he attended the general assembly of the Coopérative Maritime Etaploise, where he called for arm-wrestling with the UK in fisheries negotiations.
“More good optics for him. Bertrand has recently been spotted in meetings with a string of senior right-wing political figures, including LR [The Republicans] President Christian Jacob. Rachida Dati supports his candidacy, and Le Journal du Dimanche reports that he will meet with Nicolas Sarkozy next month. With the help of LR deputy Julien Dive, he has also been meeting with parliamentarians this week, and is set to meet with senators next week. His think tank La Manufacture has been mobilised to develop an election campaign strategy, and a recent Ifop poll put Bertrand at the top of the list of potential right-wing candidates.”
Trust in Mr Macron is continuing to plummet amid the pandemic.
According to a poll published in October, around 62 percent of French people admitted to not trusting their President.
This result is six points up from the previous poll carried out in August, while trust in the government dropped five points.
The Elabe poll for BFMTV, which asked 1,000 people in France aged 18 and over, also found that nearly one in two people (47 percent) think the President is not taking “enough precautions” to limit the spread of the virus.
With the 2022 French presidential election nearing, these latest figures are clearly a worry for the En Marche leader.
