Brexit: 'Big confrontation ahead' on NI protocol says expert
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The French Government was left red-faced last month after the UK said it had approved just 12 of the 47 applications it had received from small boats in France. Anger intensified further when the Jersey Government said that of 170 license applications it had received from French boats, 75 had been rejected. Last week, Brexit tensions surged after French Europe minister Clement Beaune warned EU member states are preparing to announce measures to apply pressure on the UK to abide by the terms of the Brexit deal.
Mr Macron’s right-hand man didn’t detail what those measures might be but noted Britain depends on energy supplies it receives from Europe.
In addition, French fishing industry representatives have threatened to block the port of Calais and stop exports to the UK in the run-up to Christmas.
Now Eric Noirez from the Generation Frexit campaign group told Express.co.uk: “Brexit is a good thing – in fact, Clément Beaune would like to make the British pay for the dysfunctions and nuisances that the EU causes for France.
“He refuses to see that what is wrong with France is the EU. Not Brexit.
“But what Beaune and the Europeanists also refuse to admit is that with Brexit the UK has made the choice of independence and a return to full sovereignty: a nation that makes decisions in the interests of the British people.
“Yet the British people were clear in their vote on 23 June 2016: they no longer want European rules, they want to restore their own rules, and among their rules is the return of control over British fisheries and waters.
“A democratic legitimacy that people like Clément Beaune stubbornly refuse to accept.
“Just as they do not accept the idea that today the European continent is not one big market where everyone can come and help themselves.”
Mr Noirez ramped up Frexit calls with pressure piling onto Mr Macron ahead of the crunch presidential elections next May.
He claimed the EU has “no real democratic legitimacy to act on behalf of France as it does”.
The Frexiteer also renewed his attack against Mr Beaune, who he accused of “turning a blind eye to the ineffectiveness of an EU that remains until proven otherwise, undemocratic.”
Mr Noirez added: “Brexit has reminded us that there are rules and that these rules are primarily national.
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“The EU, for its part, still has no real democratic legitimacy to act on behalf of France as it does.
“On 29 May 2005, the French people said no to the EU’s operating treaty (a referendum that was thrown out by President Sarkozy and the parliamentarians in 2008, behind the backs of the French people).
“So Clément Beaune blames the actions of a perfectly democratic United Kingdom while turning a blind eye to the ineffectiveness of a European Union that remains until proven otherwise, undemocratic.”
Earlier this month, the French Foreign Affairs minister launched a furious outburst towards Britain, hinting the UK’s energy supplies could be impacted as part of retaliatory measures over the implementation of the Brexit deal.
He raged: “We defend our interests. We do it nicely, and diplomatically, but when that doesn’t work, we take measures.
“For example, we can imagine, since we’re talking about energy, the United Kingdom depends on our energy supplies.
“It thinks that it can live all alone, and bash Europe.”
But the UK’s Brexit minister Lord Frost hit back: “We have granted 98 percent of the licence applications from EU boats to fish in our waters according to the different criteria in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, so we do not accept that we are not abiding by that agreement.
“We have been extremely generous and the French, focusing in on a small category of boats and claiming we have behaved unreasonably, I think is not really a fair reflection of the efforts we have made.”
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