French European affairs minister Clément Beaune has invited the British government 'to rebuild a climate of trust with France and the EU in the interest of all' following the resignation of London's chief Brexit negotiator David Frost.
A 23-year-old French woman who has been living in Britain over the past year, and who has applied for residency status as required of EU citizens by post-Brexit regulations, was detained for more than eight hours when she re-entered the country at London's Gatwick airport last month.
The British government said the row between French fishermen and the authorities in Jersey over post-Brexit restrictions on vessels from France operating off the Channel island, and which led to around 60 French boats sailing in protest into the Crown dependency's main port, was 'resolved for now' but that 'we remain on standby'.
A French minister has warned that France may cut off electricity supplies to Jersey, the British crown Channel Island dependency, in response to a post-Brexit fishing rights dispute.
'Keep calm and carry on,' an Élysée official said on Saturday, quoting the British wartime slogan in response to London's decision to assign four gunboats to prevent illegal fishing.
With less than three months to go until Britain leaves the EU single market, fishing has become a key sticking point in negotiating a trade deal to replace it - with France fearing it could suffer badly.
The local authorities in the Channel port of Calais, north-west France, anticipate that a return of trade tariffs after Britain’s planned exit from the EU’s single market will revive the cross-Channel ‘booze cruises’ that saw Britons in the 1980s and 1990s day-trip to the town to buy cheap cigarettes, beer and wine on board ferries.
The withdrawal of the UK from the European Union this month was accompanied by the departure of the 73 British members of the European Parliament. The vacuum and partial redistribution of seats has caused a significant upset for the assembly’s Green members, who now find themselves overtaken in numbers by the far-right, reducing their budget and above all their clout in voting on legislation, notably regarding the raft of future policy measures for the Commission’s major “Green Deal” programme. Amid this collateral damage from Brexit, the Greens are urgently seeking new alliances, even eyeing a deal with Italy’s populist Five Star Movement. Ludovic Lamant reports from Brussels.
French fisherman are demanding their government holds up a new, post-Brexit UK-EU trade deal unless they are guaranteed continued access to British fishing grounds, among the richest in the North East Atlantic zone.
The British and French intelligence agencies are deeply concerned that their close bilateral cooperation, notably on counter-terrorism activity, remains intact after the UK leaves the European Union. But they are fearful of the consequences, especially in the case of a hard Brexit, when, the EU warns, “The UK will be disconnected from all EU networks, information systems and databases” concerned with police and judicial cooperation. Matthieu Suc reports.
The reaction to Donald Trump's behaviour and the attempts at impeachment highlights the vitality of democratic culture in the United States when faced with executive abuse of power. In contrast, argues Mediapart publishing editor Edwy Plenel, France is served by a low-intensity democracy that has been undermined by the country's system of presidential monarchy.
