Emmanuel Macron has stoked up a new row over post-Brexit fishing rights, suggesting France would force the UK into the backstop unless its fishermen were guaranteed full future access to UK waters.
The French President’s remarks followed the publication of a paper by the EU, which said it wanted a new trade deal with Britain to “build on, inter alia, existing reciprocal access and quota shares".
The Political Declaration, agreed as part of the Brexit deal, refers to a new agreement on fisheries being signed by July 2020, six months before the end of the transition period when the UK’s continued observance of the Common Fisheries Policy[CFP] is due to come to an end.
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At his post-summit press conference, Mr Macron declared: “All of our fishermen will be protected" and that access to British waters for EU fishermen would be "a key point of future negotiations”.
He told reporters: “We as 27 have a clear position on fair competition, on fish, on the subject of the EU's regulatory autonomy and that forms part of our lines for the future relationship talks, which is a lever, because it is in our mutual interest to have this future relationship.”
The French President added: “It is leverage because it is important as to our future relationship and I do not understand that Mrs May and those who support her very much want to stay in the customs union; they would rather favour new rules.”
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The Prime Minister has insisted the UK will take back full control of its waters, negotiating from December 2020 as an independent coastal state.
But Ross Thomson, the Scottish Conservative MP, who has made clear he will vote against Mrs May’s proposed Brexit deal next month, described the EU27’s position on a new fisheries agreement as "deeply troubling".
He told the BBC’s Politics Scotland: "That [EU statement] does deeply trouble me. The current arrangement is very good for the EU; the arrangement we have on fisheries has been devastating for fishing communities across Scotland and the UK.
"It's in the interests of the EU to keep it going and they want to build on those existing arrangements, so to my mind that can only mean the continuation of some form of the CFP.”
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The MP for Aberdeen South went on: "It may not be called that but if it looks like the CFP and behaves like the CFP, then it is the CFP and that's why we need to resist it as we go into these negotiations."
Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon attempted to heap pressure on David Mundell, who has threatened to quit the Cabinet if the UK remained tied to the CFP beyond the end of the transition period.
The First Minister tweeted: "I'll be interested to hear David Mundell explain how this - 'existing reciprocal access and quota shares' - can be squared with the promises made to the Scottish fishing industry. [Hint - it can't]."
The Scottish Secretary has insisted the political declaration is a "good deal" for the fishing industry, which would allow the UK to become an independent coastal state and leave the "hated" CFP and has stressed he will take no lessons from the SNP, which, he says, wants to keep Scotland bound to the CFP. Mr Mundell has repeatedly said he will not be drawn into a “resignation soap opera,” rather his focus is to get the best Brexit outcome for Scotland and the UK.
However, Labour’s Lesley Laird also called on Mr Mundell to clarify his position ahead of Scottish Questions in the Commons later this week, saying that the inclusion of references to access to waters and quota shares in the future economic partnership was a “clear breach” of the Scottish Tories’ red line on the fisheries issue.
In a letter, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, wrote: "I would, therefore, be grateful if you were able to clarify that you will not be voting for the deal on this basis. If that is the case, I really must ask why you have not resigned your position in the Cabinet?"
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