EU Fishermen’s blockades bring chaos to land and sea
Pastor Dale Morgan
From The Times
April 16, 2009
*
EU Fishermen’s blockades bring chaos to land and sea*
Charles Bremner in Paris and Will Pavia
Thousands of cross-Channel travellers face a third day of chaos today
caused by fishermen blockading French ports.
There was a brief respite last night when the protesters began allowing
some ferries into Calais. Boulogne and Dunkirk remained blocked.
A line of lorries stretching deep into Kent has been forming since
Tuesday when 100 fishing boats manoeuvred into position across the
entrances to the ports, paralysing ferry traffic. As hauliers,
holidaymakers and business travellers waited, P&O cancelled sailings to
all three ports.
On the French side traffic was delayed further by a “snail operation” on
the A16 autoroute as the fishermen adopted the tactics of striking
farmers and lorry owners by driving slowly in formation across all lanes.
Passengers stranded on both sides of the Channel finally got back on the
move at about 8.15pm as the blockade at Calais was lifted, although P&O
warned that the protest was likely to resume at dawn. It expected to
clear the backlog of 450 freight vehicles queuing on the M20 in Kent by
midnight. About 600 lorries were waiting at Calais with 1,200 passengers
still stuck at the French port.
On the Calais dockside was a coach carrying 49 members of the Cwmbran
Otters swimming club returning from a training camp in France. Among the
children in the party was Casey-May Ratcliff, 8, a diabetic, who was
running out of insulin. Her grandfather, Gerald Sims, said: “If we get
back to Cwmbran by 8am tomorrow it should be all right but after that we
will be out of insulin.”
Helen Van Herp, 34, was stranded with her son, Devon, 4, who was being
brought back to Britain for an operation in Liverpool. She said: “We
really need him to undergo this operation so we have to get back — we’re
so anxious, we cannot believe it.”
While some travellers diverted to take the Eurotunnel, the Calais branch
of the CFDT, one of France’s biggest unions, was threatening to blockade
the tunnel in “solidarity” with the fishermen. It was thought unlikely,
however, that police would allow that to happen.
French public opinion appears to be broadly in sympathy with the
fishermen after weeks in which mass dismissals have prompted factory
occupations and strikes. In a poll published yesterday by the market
research company BVA, 55 per cent of respondents thought that “radical
social action” was justified and 64 per cent said that those involved
should not be punished.
Outside the Eastern Docks in Dover, holidaymakers and business
travellers were less sympathetic. Margaret Eden, 62, and her husband,
Tony, were forced to sleep in their car after arriving on Tuesday to
discover that ferries had been suspended.
“Every time there’s a problem, the French try to blockade the ports and
stop the tourists going to France, but we have no say over the issue,”
she said. “We are just going to wait. When you’ve stuck it out for one
night, you might as well wait and keep your fingers crossed.”
The independent boat owners of the Opal Coast, the French side of the
Strait of Dover, mounted the latest in a long history of port protests
to stave off what they said was the destruction of their livelihood by
unfair EU quotas on cod and sole catches.
Michel Barnier, the French Agriculture Minister, held talks with union
leaders last night after they ignored an order from a Boulogne court to
open the harbours or face fines of up to ¤5,000 (£4,500) per boat per
hour. After the talks the French Government said it was offering ¤4
million in aid to fishermen in northern France but ruled out changes to
EU quotas.
The Boulogne judge granted the order after P&O and LD, another ferry
company, sought an injunction. P&O said that it was losing £1 million a
day. “I cannot remember a blockade quite as bad as this and we are
looking at the possibility of seeking compensation from the French
authorities,” a spokesman said.
Siege mentality
1806 Napoleon tries to bring down British commerce with a series of
blockades known as the Continental System. French allies are told to
refuse to trade with Britain but several rebel and the plan fails
1996-97 Lorry drivers twice stage blockades over poor pay deals,
bringing chaos to Europe’s roads
August 2000 About 700 French fishermen block the Channel Tunnel and
prevent ferries crossing between Dover and Calais, in a protest at
diesel costs. Hundreds of holidaymakers wait for hours at ports, and
lorries queue for five miles along the M20
January 2001 French beef farmers block traffic at toll booths in protest
at the French Government’s plan to screen 20,000 cows a week for BSE
December 2003 When French fishermen threaten to blockade Calais,
Boulogne and Dunkirk, P&O ferries say they will run four-hour
mini-cruises into the Channel, allowing passengers to shop at cheap duty
rates in French waters
May 2008 Angry fishermen protesting over fuel prices hold 30 boats
carrying 60 British holidaymakers hostage for more than a week