CNN
France has detained a British fishing vessel and announced it will close nearly all of its ports to trawlers from the UK, a major escalation in its ongoing spat with the country over post-Brexit fishing rights.
“Aside from a few exceptions, all French ports will no longer be accessible to British boats,” France’s European affairs minister, Clement Beaune, said in an interview on French TV station CNEWS, referring to vessels that offload fish and produce.
Some three or four ports would remain open to British fishing vessels when the closure comes into force on Tuesday, with the exact number decided in the week ahead, he said, adding: “There will be no tolerance, no indulgence.”
Beaune also said that security checks begun on Wednesday night had intercepted two British vessels “that were not respecting the rules.”
The French minister for the sea, Annick Girardin, had earlier confirmed that two British vessels had been stopped and fined, with one diverted to a French port.
One of the boats was not listed on the European Union’s approved list of UK fishing vessels, and the regional government director “immediately issued” an order to divert the vessel to the French port of Le Havre, his statement said.
