Brussels tells Paris to back down over Brexit fish wars: 'We need to cool the waters'

Brussels has knocked back French demands to hit the UK with tariffs and cut off British access to EU energy supplies in the row over post-Brexit fishing rights.

Other EU capitals told Paris to dial down the rhetoric until a full investigation into the dispute was carried out, it has emerged.

Mr Macron is under mounting pressure to retaliate after London rejected all but 12 out of 47 French applications for new licences for small boats to operate in Britain’s fishing grounds.

Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron's rival in next year's presidential election, told the French leader he had to use every possible tool as leverage to secure more licences for French fishermen in the UK’s coastal waters.

This should include threatening to withdraw cooperation to curb cross-Channel migration, she said.

The European Commission, which negotiates on behalf of the bloc, has however sought to cool tensions between Paris and London in order to find an “amicable” solution to the row.

Sources have told the Telegraph that French ministers were premature to bandy around ultimatums while the Commission and UK engage in detailed “boat-by-boat” negotiations over the issue.

A senior EU diplomat said: “Once again France is instrumentalising the EU for national interests.”

A second source said: “We need to cool the temperature of the water. We need to sit down and talk amicably. It's very warm water at the moment and that doesn't help anyone."

Mr Macron has told his government to draw up plans for a retaliatory strike against Britain in four areas, including cutting energy supplies to the UK and Jersey or severing Anglo-French ties in defence and security.

Paris earlier this week called an emergency meeting of the EU’s coastal states appealing for European-wide retaliation against Britain, according to the source.

A number of member states raised concerns that the facts of the row were yet to be fully established, with some claiming both France and the UK could be to blame for the dispute.

“It transpired that most member states, before we do anything, want to make sure everything that happened here happened the way it should have,” the diplomat added.

It was even suggested by one attendee at the meeting, which took place on Monday, that France could be “asking for more licences than there are fish in the Channel”.

France was also accused of failing to “materially and substantially include the Commission” to ensure that its trawlermen were genuinely entitled to access the UK’s coastal water under the terms of the post-Brexit fisheries agreement.

The Commission has publicly played down the prospect of retaliation and said resolving the row was a “top priority” for the bloc.

Many in Brussels believe it is vital to end the fisheries dispute to stop separate post-Brexit negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol becoming blocked by France.

Maros Sefcovic, the EU's Brexit negotiator, has also urged Lord Lord to tone down his "political rhetoric" and warned the Brexit minister's threat to trigger Article 16 override clause of the Northern Ireland Protocol was "not helpful" for relations.

The Commission vice-president also ruled out British demands to strip out European Court of Justice jurisdiction over EU rules in Northern Ireland.

He told an event in Dublin that this would see the province's access to the Single Market revoked.

“Do we want to deprive the people of Northern Ireland for this tremendous opportunity? Let's think very, very carefully, what we are putting on the table and what kind of price tag these might have," he said.