Due to rising tensions following British support for the V-4 states during the Visegrad rebellion and the subsequent British backing for Brazil during the French-Brazilian standoff, France started to back the re-militarized claim of Argentina on the Falkland Islands, which lead to a new series of military clashes with the UK. France, alongside other EU members also supported Scottish aspirations for independence, leading to a worsening of relations between the EU and the UK that ultimately resulted in military escalation in the English Channel, the North Sea and various overseas territories, which was later on nicknamed the "Brexit War".
2042[]
The „Brexit War“ of the 2040s.
The European Cold War: Tension between the UK and EU[]
Anti-EU protests in the UK.
The Royal Navy gets deployed in the English Channel over fishing rights rows.
French sailors clash with the British Navy on the Channel Islands over fishing rights.
More pro-Brexit protests in the UK.
Migrant camps at the French coast in Calais.
The British Royal Navy engages against migrants in the English Channel.
French warships sailing towards the harbor of Jersey.
Following the Visegrad-Rebellion and the French-Brazilian standoff during which the conservative government of the United Kingdom openly supported anti-EU factions, tensions between the British and the EU itself began to boil up more intensively in the 2040‘s. As a response to British support for Brazil during the crisis with France, which almost culminated in military hostilities, the EU imposed a series of sanctions against its former member, including the suspension of fishing licenses for British vessels in EU waters, as well as the introduction of new tariffs on British goods, making their export to the EU market extremely expensive. The UK retaliated by denying EU vessels fishing licenses for its water, while deploying naval assets to demonstrate its resolve. The EU Comission summoned a delegation of British politicians to prevent further worsening of tensions, while France, which was particularly at odds with the UK following the crisis in South America, expelled various British politicians in retaliation of British economic sanctions against French and German products, which were imposed because the British Government depicted France and Germany as the main driving forces of „Anti-British Hostility“ in the EU. Following these recent escalations, the EU decided to fully terminate the fishing rights clauses of the Brexit Agreement, which gave around 25% of the EUs fishing rights in the waters around the British Isles to the UK, resulting in a growing number of EU fish trawlers, particularly from France to become active in maritime zones the UK claimed belong exclusively to British fishermen. In response to these developments, British Navy ships began harassing EU fishing boats in the English Channel, which culminated in several vessels getting rammed by the Royal Navy, while dozens of Fishermen were arrested after being accused of acting hostile towards the navy ships. The arrest of the EU fisherman sparked a massive outcry in the Union, leading the British ambassadors in many EU countries to be summoned by the respective governments, as did the British with the envoys of France and Germany. Anti-EU protests once again broke out over the escalation in the Channel, as well as retaliatory economic actions of the EU against the UK, leading many, mainly conservative supporters, to question the validity of the Brexit-Deal post-WW3, calling the EU a „mafia-state“ and the secret „Fourth Reich“, much to the dismay of Germany. These events were also used by both sides to engage in provocative maneuvers concerning migration, which already inflamed the tensions between the V4 States and the EU several years prior, causing the „Visegrad-Rebellion“ in the first place. Many migrants from the Middle East and Africa still came to Europe in masses following the devastation of WW3 and the once again growing number of armed conflicts, especially in Africa, where droughts and a scarred nature limited the amount of available resources for the human population in many countries respectively. France, after the rows over its detained fishermen and the british show of force through the Royal Navy, decided to let a growing number of migrants who wished to seek refuge in the UK through to traverse through the Channel towards the British Isles. This was met with a gigantic outcry, both amongst the British political establishment and the public, which demanded that the migrants would be taken back by France. The French refused any of these demands and instead deployed several naval assets of its own to position themselves against their British counterparts, as these tried to force their way towards french waters after intercepting and detaining migrants on the open sea. This resulted in several direct standoffs between the French and British navies, which resulted in provocative maneuvers from both sides, including the usage of water hoses, warning shots fired in the air and cruising in front of each other at a dangerously close proximity. British naval vessels were then deployed in a larger quantity to the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernesey, which sparked concerns in the EU about potential escalation, since the UK announced to suspend its cooperation with the AUF, following the political crisis, resulting in the European military not getting insight on the movements and plans of the British armed forces. When the Royal Navy ships docked on the Channel Islands, it became clear that they carried detained migrants, which the British intended to send back to the French shores in a similar manner to how the embarked to the British Isles in the first place.