France is linking fishing rights with future post-Brexit financial services deal - source

[May 12, 2021]    PARIS (Reuters) -France has said it will delay a European Union financial services deal with Britain until Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government grants European fishermen full access to UK waters, a source familiar with the French move said on Wednesday.

A fisherman looks the fish tank aboard the Boulogne-sur-Mer based trawler "Nicolas Jeremy" in the North Sea, off the coast of northern France, December 8, 2020. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

"We've made a link between the two," the source said.

The post-Brexit dispute over access to the UK's rich fishing grounds last week saw France and Britain send patrol vessels to the Channel island of Jersey as a flotilla of French trawlers sailed there in protest.

A second source said Britain was failing to adhere to the terms of a deal governing its post-Brexit trade relations with the EU. There can be no progress on other dossiers if these are not resolved, the source, a European diplomat, added.

"It's not just France and it's not just fishing," the European diplomat said. "Britain must fully apply the agreements it signed up to, which is not the case right now."

(Reporting by Michel Rose in Paris and John Chalmers in Brussels; Editing by Richard Lough; editing by Louise Heavens and Gareth Jones)

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