France threatens to cut Britain's POWER in bitter row over Jersey fishing permits

Ministers dismiss empty French threats to cut Britain’s POWER in bitter row over fishing permits for Jersey saying the UK would ‘never trust them again’ if they pulled the plug

  • France and UK embroiled in stand-off over Jersey fishing rights for French boats
  • Paris minister Clement Beaune pointed out Britain depends on Europe for energy
  • Jersey only gave 12 French boats licences after Brexit as others lacked evidence  


Ministers today dismissed French threats  to cut Britain’s power in a dramatic escalation of the bitter row over Jersey fishing permits.

Europe minister Clement Beaune engaged in the extraordinary sabre-rattling as he accused the UK of failing to implement the Brexit deal.

Paris was infuriated when Jersey only granted licences to 12 small French boats out of 47 applications this summer – with warnings that vessels could mount a blockade.  

Mr Beaune went further this morning, pointedly observing that the UK depends on energy exports across the Channel. 

Two under-sea cables of the Interconnexion France-Angleterre (IFA) supply the UK with enough electricity to power three million homes – more than the total amount generated by British wind farms.

‘Enough already, we have an agreement negotiated by France, by Michel Barnier, and it should be applied 100 percent. It isn’t being,’ he told Europe 1 radio.

France has threatened to cut Britain's power in a dramatic escalation of the bitter row over Jersey fishing permits (pictured, French boats protest off St Helier in June

France has threatened to cut Britain’s power in a dramatic escalation of the bitter row over Jersey fishing permits (pictured, French boats protest off St Helier in June  

Europe minister Clement Beaune engaged in extraordinary sabre-rattling as he accused the UK of failing to implement the Brexit deal

Europe minister Clement Beaune engaged in extraordinary sabre-rattling as he accused the UK of failing to implement the Brexit deal

This graphic shows how the Interconnexion France-Angleterre subsea electricity operation works between France and Kent

This graphic shows how the Interconnexion France-Angleterre subsea electricity operation works between France and Kent

The IFA (thick line in green) is one of a series of electricity interconnectors between Britain and other parts of Europe

The IFA (thick line in green) is one of a series of electricity interconnectors between Britain and other parts of Europe

The French connection: How electricity crosses the Channel

Two under-sea cables of the Interconnexion France-Angleterre (IFA) supply the UK with enough electricity to power three million homes – more than the total amount generated by British wind farms.

IFA 1 connects Kent and the Pas de Calais, while IFA 2 links Fareham in Hampshire and Caen in Normandy.

Their electricity interconnectors use  are high-voltage cables to connect the distribution  systems of neighbouring countries, and allow them to share excess power.

The landing point for IFA 1 is Folkestone, from where underground cables connect to the Sellindge converter station and then onto the UK’s transmission station. 

However, it was damaged by fire last month, causing a spike in electricity prices amid fears it will not be back to 100 per cent until next March. 

IFA 2 went live in January and could bring in 1.2 per cent of the UK’s energy. 

As well as the French connections there are also similar cables connecting the UK with Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway. 

‘In the next few days, and I talked to my European counterparts on this subject yesterday, we will take measures at the European level or nationally, to apply pressure on the United Kingdom.’

He added: ‘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,’ Beaune also said. ‘It thinks that it can live all alone, and bash Europe.’

But a Cabinet minister told MailOnline that Mr Beaune was making empty threats – pointing out that relations would be shattered if France took that kind of action.

‘If France was to cut off our power supplies, we would just never use them again,’ they said.

‘Why would you ever go back to a provider who did that? Trust would be gone. They would be damaging themselves in the long-term.’

Fishing rights were one of the key battlegrounds between Britain and France in their post-Brexit negotiations. 

Earlier this year, a dispute over the licences led both France and Britain to send patrol vessels off the shores of Jersey, which is a self-governing British Crown Dependency. 

Diplomatic relations between the countries have hit a low point in recent weeks.

Last month Boris Johnson told France to ‘prenez un grip’ and ‘donnez moi un break’ in the row about the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal that tore up a separate French contract.   

Britain says the majority of the vessels were denied licences because they failed to provide evidence that they had fished in the six-to-12-mile nautical zone in the years before the UK’s referendum on leaving the EU.  

Jersey external relations minister Ian Gorst said the island’s government had taken ‘a pragmatic, reasonable and evidence-based approach’ to the issue.  

source: dailymail.co.uk