By Clara Bauer-Babef | EURACTIV.fr 05-11-2021 EU and UK officials on Friday stressed the need to build on new 'momentum' in the talks on the controversial Northern Ireland protocol after a week in which the threat of a trade war appeared to recede. [EPA-EFE / OLIVIER HOSLET] EURACTIV is part of the Trust Project >>> Print Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Discussions will resume “early next week”, a British government spokesperson said after UK Brexit Minister David Frost and French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune met Thursday in Paris in an attempt to ease tensions over the post-Brexit fisheries agreements. “This meeting has allowed the resumption of dialogue”, but “there is still a lot of work to be done and there are still important differences in position”, Beaune said after the meeting. The two ministers “discussed all the difficulties arising from applying the agreements between the UK and the EU. Both sides outlined their positions and concerns,” the British spokesperson said. France and the United Kingdom are in conflict over the fishing licences granted to Europeans after Brexit. Tensions are such that Paris is threatening sanctions if London does not grant more licences to French fishermen. But in Glasgow, during the COP26, President Emmanuel Macron was conciliatory, declaring: “It is not while we are negotiating that we are going to impose sanctions. Frost is due to meet the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, in Brussels on Friday. (Clara Bauer-Babef | EURACTIV.fr)
