France summons captain of seized British fishing boat to court as UK warns ‘two can play that game’

French authorities seized the vessel, fined another British boat and announced the closure of nearly all of France’s ports to trawlers from the UK on Thursday, a major escalation in theEustice added that the latest incident concerns a “very small number of vessels that just don’t qualify under the terms of the agreement” reached. A UK government spokesman said: “We repeat that the Government has granted 98% of license applications from EU vessels to fish in the UK’s waters and, as has consistently been made clear, will consider any further evidence on the remainder.”The French minister for the sea, Annick Girardin, said the boat that was detained Thursday was not listed on the EU’s approved list of UK fishing vessels, and the regional government director “immediately issued” an order to divert the boat to the French port of Le Havre. A second boat was fined for not complying with orders to allow French authorities to board the vessel to conduct checks, the statement tweeted by Girardin said. Additional checks by French maritime gendarmes found no further infraction of fishing regulations. Joseph Ataman reported from Paris, Martin Goillandeau reported from London.