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Steven Barratt, a barrister and writer for The Spectator believes France is now “as bad as Poland” by acting alone to issue sanctions to the UK following the escalation of the fishing row. French president Mr Macron, who is currently in the presence of Boris Johnson at Cop26 in Glasgow, issued the UK with a deadline of Tuesday for movement in the row over French access to British fishing waters.
Paris threatened to disrupt the flow of UK exports from Tuesday unless a deal was reached. Disruptions could include increased checks on British fishing boats and trucks – and tariffs on electricity to the Channel Islands.
Macron has also called for EU-UK cooperation in other areas to be frozen until the dispute is solved.
Mr Barratt tweeted: “The Rule of Law Crisis is an existential threat to the EU
“People obsessed with the politics (and hating the UK) are missing this. If France can act alone now, any of the other 26 can and in any treaty
“Without the Rule of Law the EU does not exist
“France = as bad as Poland.”
Mr Barratt’s tweet references an ongoing conflict between the EU and Poland after the Polish government issued a series of judicial reforms which have the potential to challenge the EU’s legal foundation.
Poland made changes relating to the appointment, discipline and removal of Polish judges, which the EU fears could cause the bloc’s common legal system to unravel, as it effectively decouples Poland’s legal system from other member states.
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The Polish ruling followed a precedent set by Germany, who also confronted the EU’s legal order when judges found that the European Central Bank (ECB) had overstepped its mandate by approving bond-buying programs.
The German courts also dismissed a ruling by the European Court of Justice.
Franklin Dehousse, a law professor and former judge at the European Court of Justice, told Politico that “Germany set a dangerous precedent by attacking the primacy of EU law.”
Ms Truss told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that, despite French threats, UK fishing licences had been awarded to French boats “entirely in accordance” with the post-Brexit deal between the EU and UK.
She has also threatened legal action unless France withdraws the threats, saying that the UK is prepared to “use the dispute resolution mechanism in the trade deal we signed with the EU to take action against the French”.
“We’re simply not going to roll over in the face of these threats,” she added.
She added that France was acting “unfairly” in setting a deadline for issuing more fishing permits.
In an attempt to solve the dispute between France and the UK, representatives from the European Commission, France, the UK and the Channel Islands are holding talks via video link today.
A commission spokesperson said they hoped the meeting would bring a “swift solution on the outstanding issues”.
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