France is planning to ask the EU to begin “litigation proceedings” if an ongoing row over fishing licences is not resolved. The European Commission has said the dispute must be settled by December 10—but Downing Street said on Thursday it did not recognise the deadline, threatening to further inflame tensions between the nations. The row surrounds licences to fish in UK and Channel Islands waters under the terms of Britain’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU—the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA). The main source of contention is the number of licences to fish in waters around the British coastline for smaller French vessels that can prove they operated there before Brexit. France says Britain has not handed out enough licences to its fishermen while the UK Government has insisted the overwhelming majority of applications have been granted. France’s seas minister Annick Girardin said on Thursday that if the deadlock remained …