Brussels, 23/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The compromise - currently extending only to a telephone conversation between the European agriculture commissioner and the Moroccan minister for agriculture on Friday 21 June - on relaxing the access regime for fruit and vegetables, particularly tomatoes, has only partially satisfied the professional organisations of the country. It would only be bringing back a “right which the EU has infringed”, states their organisation, FIFEL. We have been calling for that right “for several years” and “in fact, this by no means constitutes a concession on the part of the EU”.
On the basis of the measures challenged by Morocco, “millions of euro have been paid (unfairly) to the EU by Moroccan producers and exporters”, because the method for calculating the charges was done “in a complete lack of transparency, penalising Moroccan operators. The proof is that DG Agri [Ed: of the European Commission] has agreed today” to reconsider the measure. “We believe that this is not as a concession, but simply a matter of applying the law”, adds FIFEL, which supplied a detailed technical argument about the mechanisms set in place. In the absence of measures accepted by it, “the Morocco origin will lose some 130,000 tonnes of its export potential, which could have disastrous consequences on the national market and on the viability and, therefore, on the continuity of activities”.
Lastly, FIFEL is not backing down and has announced that taking the European agricultural policy to court “remains the only alternative available to the profession”. (FB)