FRANCE is facing a huge Brexit crisis as 80 percent of fishermen operating from a historic port just 30km from Britain still don't have a licence to travel to UK waters.
Boulogne-sur-mer, the first-ever fishing port in France that is located in the north of the country, employs around 6,000 people in the vital and once-lucrative fishing sector. But three months after the UK completed its departure from the European Union and the agreement on fisheries was reached between the two sides, huge swathes of French fishing boats have been forced to remain in the port. Olivier Lepetre, President of the Regional Fisheries Committee, described the sudden fall in trade and amount of fish caught as a "disaster".
Fishermen travelling from the port have easy access to UK waters as the town is located a stone's throw across the Channel, meaning they could save much-needed travel time on boats.
But he warned four in five fishermen still don't have a licence to travel to those waters, and blamed demands from the UK placed on its fishermen as the root cause of the problem.
Mr Lepetre told French political television channel Public Sénat: "It’s a disaster. The fall is so dramatic that you can't make up for it.
"Boulogne-sur-mer is less than 30 km from the United Kingdom. The fishermen therefore quickly arrive in British waters.
"But not so much after Brexit because 80 percent of fishermen still do not have their licence.
"The UK asks for electronic evidence to show they have been fishing in British waters since before 2016, but many fishermen don't have that."
In a further attack on the fisheries deal negotiated between the UK and EU, Mr Lepetre claimed "Brexit is a real fiasco" for the fishermen of Hauts-de-France, the northernmost region of France.
He raged: "For the fishermen of Hauts-de-France, Brexit is a real fiasco.
Source: Express
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