France is threatening to cut off Jersey's electricity supply over a row relating to fishing licenses. Under the terms of the TCA the UK has to provide licenses for foreign vessels but in the waters around Jersey this is done by the island, which is a crown dependency. Last week 41 licenses were issued which contained conditions, “which were not arranged or discussed [with France], and which we were not notified about” according to Annick Girardin, the French minister for maritime affairs,
I have no idea about the ins and outs of these license conditions but the upshot is that Mme Girardin said in the French parliament that Jersey relies on “the transmission of electricity by underwater cable” from France and hinted that this could be switched off. Girardin said she, "would regret it if we were to get there,” but “we will do so if we have to.” It is a clear threat of retaliation.
This morning City AM are reporting that the EU Commission is recommending the UK is not permitted to join something called the Lugano convention. This convention allows legal judgements to be enforced across borders, with all EU countries plus Norway, Switzerland and Iceland being members of the pact. It allows consumers to take companies based in different countries to court domestically if they are unhappy with a product, for example.
The Commission's view is that the European Union should:
"...not give its consent to the accession of the United Kingdom to the 2007 Lugano Convention. For the European Union, the Lugano Convention is a flanking measure of the internal market and relates to the EU-EFTA/EEA context. In relation to all other third countries the consistent policy of the European Union is to promote cooperation within the framework of the multilateral Hague Conventions.
“The United Kingdom is a third country without a special link to the internal market. Therefore, there is no reason for the European Union to depart from its general approach in relation to the United Kingdom. Consequently, the Hague Conventions should provide the framework for future cooperation between the European Union and the United Kingdom in the field of civil judicial cooperation.”
Not all member states agree apparently and they will vote on it at some point I assume, when we will see what happens. Nevertheless, Brexiteer Lord Moylan was quick to respond:
An irritant rather than a problem, but another example of how the EU continues to seek to punish the UK through imposing unnecessary barriers.Brussels recommends member states block UK from Lugano Convention - CityAM : CityAM https://t.co/2ozYejJOw5— Lord Moylan (@danielmgmoylan) May 5, 2021
The point of these two unconnected issues is that what was a close and cooperative relationship with fellow member states is now a competitive and fractious one with every move on either side seen through the prism of Brexit. The EU is either 'rolling over' to UK demands or simply 'being awkward.' Moylan thinks the EU is punishing us for leaving, which others see as the UK being denied the cake it wants both to have and eat.
The FT's Peter Foster tweeted:
Or, where #brexit has inevitably turned a sometimes difficult but functioning neighbourhood relationship into something adversarial and political. https://t.co/3sT1BP8QGG
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) May 5, 2021
Over the next few years these issues are going to crop up every so often and create exactly the sort of anti-EU atmosphere the Brexiteers want. It does not help us to convince leavers of the benefits of EU membership - although it should.
Finally, I want to point you to an article in The Critic about Mario Draghi. It is is a beautifully written piece and a fascinating insight into the former ECB governor and now prime minister of Italy. The title is: The sphinx who reshaped Europe.
It is about power politics and changes in personal philosophy (Draghi was the man who helped to create the Euro in 1999 and saved it in 2012 but his PhD thesis was an explanation of why a common European currency could never work).
It begins with a description of a 16 second clip from Draghi's speech in 2012 about the euro. At the time speculators were shorting the currency and there were fears it might collapse. Those 16 seconds saved the currency. If you want to hear the clip here it is on Youtube.
These are the words:
“Within our mandate, within our mandate … the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the Euro.” He paused, adding, just to make sure: “Believe me, it will be enough.” Within minutes, the news hit the wires; billions shorting the Euro began to move in the opposite direction."
He had persuaded Angela Merkel that it was in Germany's interests to back a banking union and....
"This was just enough credibility to claim Berlin was behind the Eurozone. He then multiplied it. Watching Draghi say “whatever it takes” was like Hegel watching Napoléon at Jena. “It is indeed a wonderful sensation,” Hegel wrote, “to see such an individual, who, concentrated at a single point, astride a horse, who reaches out over the world and masters it.”
"But who was the horseman? Was it Draghi? Was it Merkel? Or was it the markets? According to the political philosopher Luuk van Middelaar, then Van Rompuy’s adviser, those sixteen seconds contain it all. “If you listen carefully; first there’s the technocratic. He says, ‘within our mandate’. Then, there’s the political, ‘whatever it takes’. And only then, there’s charismatic authority, ‘And believe me, it will be enough.’ And that’s what makes him the horseman.” The following day Hollande and Merkel confirmed. He had opened the way for the ECB to backstop sovereign debt markets. His charismatic authority had convinced traders that power lay behind the Euro: using the bare minimum."
Where do we have leaders who could do this today? Weep for what we have lost and what we have become.
