{"id":11963,"date":"2025-04-11T22:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T22:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/11963\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T22:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T22:11:10","slug":"emmanuel-macron-blocking-crucial-uk-peace-plans-over-brexit-row-as-france-makes-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/11963\/","title":{"rendered":"Emmanuel Macron BLOCKING crucial UK peace plans over Brexit row as France makes demands"},"content":{"rendered":"

A UK-France defence partnership to shore up support for Ukraine is being stalled over fishing rights, the EU’s foreign affairs chief has said.<\/p>\n

French and British military chiefs have been thrashing out plans for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine if a potential peace deal with Russia comes to pass – but once again, France has demanded access to UK waters.<\/p>\n

Since Labour’s General Election victory last summer, the Government has talked up a “relations reset” with the EU – with a post-Brexit trade deal potentially on the table.<\/p>\n

But Brussels has repeatedly called for “the maintenance of the status quo”<\/a> to permit access for European boats in British waters.<\/p>\n

\"Macron<\/p>\n

French and British military chiefs have been thrashing out plans for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine if a potential peace deal with Russia comes to pass<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

Several EU countries are dissatisfied with the current fishing arrangement and are urging the bloc’s chiefs to pressure Britain into granting permanent access to their trawlers.<\/p>\n

That forced Fisheries Minister Daniel Zeichner to vow to MPs late last month<\/a>: “Other countries are clearly pushing very hard, and we will push equally hard for our sector.”<\/p>\n

But today, the EU’s Kaja Kallas admitted that the French were holding things up – she said: “I’m surprised how important the fish are given the security situation.”<\/p>\n

MORE FROM THE EU:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Macron<\/p>\n

Several EU countries are dissatisfied with the current fishing arrangement and are urging the bloc’s chiefs to pressure Britain<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

Alongside France, Sweden’s EU affairs minister Jessica Rosencrantz warned of how fisheries could obstruct a crucial defence pact two weeks before Kaja Kallas’s remarks today.<\/p>\n

“Just to be clear, I think it’s really important that the EU and UK work together on defense and security,” Rosencrantz told Politico.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, there are other sensitive issues as well for many member states which also need to be resolved – fisheries being one.”<\/p>\n

Asked whether it would be possible to complete a defence pact first and then sort out fishing later, she said: “I think we have to find a way where we can do both because we want to move ahead with the defence partnership – but for many countries it’s important to solve the other sensitive issues as well.<\/p>\n

“And therefore I think it will be important to take steps also when it comes to fisheries and other topics.”<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

PICTURED: John Healey greets Kaja Kallas in Brussels<\/p>\n

REUTERS<\/p>\n

But regardless of the fishing head-to-head, Nato allies pledged almost \u00a320billion in new military aid to Ukraine, Defence Secretary John Healey said after a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels today.<\/p>\n

In a speech alongside his German and Ukrainian counterparts, Healey slated Vladimir Putin for “dragging his feet and delaying” despite the Russian premier’s claims of wanting peace.<\/p>\n

From January to March, Russia launched 10,000 glide bombs, alongside 100 drones every day.<\/p>\n

Now, up to 80 per cent of battlefield casualties are inflicted by drones, Healey said.<\/p>\n

As a result, now is the moment for defence industries, militaries and governments to step up – and send “a signal to Putin but a message to Ukraine”, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A UK-France defence partnership to shore up support for Ukraine is being stalled over fishing rights, the EU’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,36,4884,12,285,16,1259,3106,15,263,8048],"class_list":{"0":"post-11963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-uk-news","20":"tag-uk-politics","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-world-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114321626650606638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}