Paris and London: An Alliance of Discord

Oct 16

Oct 16 Paris and London: An Alliance of Discord

On 16th October 2020, nigh on a year ago and just 10 weeks before the end of the Brexit transition period on 1st January 2021, the Prime Minister announced that we would have to prepare for a no-deal Brexit. The proceeding ten weeks brought further discussion, negotiation and dissatisfaction until, on Christmas Eve itself, as hauliers sat in queues in Calais and Dover, a deal was struck. It was clear even then, long before any contract was agreed upon, that this was only the beginning of the discord. One signifier of the disruption to come was the closure of the French border over the Christmas period, with little notice, leaving Europeans and Britons alike stranded on either side of ‘La Manche’.

Since then, discontent has been particularly apparent between Paris and London, made worse by the recent announcement of the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The new trilateral agreement would see Australia acquire a nuclear-powered submarine, throwing a spanner in the works of a ninety-billion-dollar diesel submarine contract formed between Australia and France in 2016. The pact is largely assumed to be a bid to combat China’s strength and influence in the contested South China Sea, although none of the parties involved have confirmed this. Gérard Araud, the former French ambassador to Washington, tweeted: ‘The world is a jungle…France has just been reminded this bitter truth by the way the US and the UK have stabbed her in the back in Australia. C’est la vie.’

In a more official response, the French government has gone as far as recalling the French ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia, Phillipe Étienne and Jean-Pière Thébault, ‘for consultation.’ Yet, there has been no clear idea given of when they would return to post in their respective host countries. This unprecedented response highlights the anger felt in the Elysée Palace, not only over the financial loss of the submarine contracts but also over the treatment of France by some of her closest allies. France had been purportedly reassured in the run up to the AUKUS announcement that everything was going to plan, and the manufacturers had agreed on specifications for the submarines mere days beforehand.

However, the AUKUS dispute is not the only obstacle between France and Britain in a post-Brexit world. Tension has been mounting over fishing rights, with French ministers going as far as threatening to cut off power supplies to the British Isles. The main point of contention in this debate regards the licences of French fishing boats. Part of the application asks fishermen to prove that their vessels have a history of fishing in those waters. The waters around the Isle of Jersey are particularly under scrutiny as Jersey’s government has been similarly parsimonious in allocating licences. The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) reportedly approved only 12 of the 47 applications for small vessel fishing licences, angering the French authorities who assert that Britain is not upholding its side of the Brexit deal. DEFRA responded saying that the allocation of licences to fish in British waters has been ‘reasonable and fully in line with our commitments in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement’.

Indeed, the French government claims that it is on political grounds that the UK allows relations between the neighbours to sour. If the British government were to continue their current trajectory, they would put all Franco-British bilateral agreements at risk. The French have written to the European Commission for support; however, it is considered unlikely that the body will intervene while broader Euro-British communication is so strained. The lack of intervention is especially encouraged by the difficulties in enacting the Northern Ireland Protocol. Despite this, fourteen European member states have joined France in warning Britain about its intransigence. Belgium, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus, Portugal, Denmark, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, Malta and Latvia have all come together in exhorting Britain to act in accordance with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, a part of the larger Brexit treaty.

Now, ten months after the transition period officially ended at the beginning of 2021, we can see that bilateral agreements between Britain and individual European member states have been eroded significantly by the continued discord over almost every aspect of the Brexit process. This is especially the case with France, with whom, by rights, Britain should have at minimum a cordial relationship. The French government’s legitimate consideration of threatening to disconnect the power supply to the United Kingdom emphasises the antipathy felt in Paris towards Britain and the seriousness with which they have taken the UK’s recalcitrance. Whatever political motives may be driving the politicians on either side of the Channel, there is an evident need for immediate diplomacy to grease the wheels of our partnership if we are to continue as allies in this brave new world.