Brussels, 15/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - Morocco has given the green light to implementation of the fisheries agreement with the EU - an agreement that was signed in November 2013 and approved by the European Parliament in December 2013. This announcement, made on Monday by Spanish media on the basis of a leak from Spanish King Felipe's entourage during his visit to Morocco, was made official during on the morning of Tuesday 15 July. The Moroccan ambassador to the European Union, Menouar Alem, told EUROPE that this seems to be “a royal gift” from one sovereign to another, as a sign of a warming of the two countries' relations (which are often tense due to agricultural, fisheries or immigration issues).
A “verbal note” was due to be given to the European Commission during the day. This notification will mark the date of the agreement's entry into force. The agreement will authorise the Community (mostly Spanish) fleet to resume its fishing activity - which has been suspended since the end of 2012 - as soon as the relevant Community authority has allocated the fishing licences.
The agreement covers six categories of fishing practised both by industrial fleets and by small-scale fishermen. The financial envelope that comes with the agreement is for a total of €40 million per year, to be divided as follows: €30 million per year linked to the agreement itself (including €16 million in return alone for access to the resource and €14 million for support to the Moroccan fishing sector) and €10 million per year for shipowners.
As well as Spain, other member states - in much smaller measure - are also concerned by this agreement. Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland and the UK all have a stake in it.
The announcement marks the end of a period of disputes over the nature of this agreement and its geographical coverage. During its previous legislative period, the European Parliament was very cautious with regard to the agreement. Some political groups - and MEPS individually - raised, at every occasion, the issue of the sovereignty of the waters off the Western Sahara (a zone that is still contested). The Polisario, the reputed representative of this territory, officially went to the European Court of Justice against the agreement.
The Moroccan daily newspaper L'Economiste considers in an article that there will be less pressure from the European Parliament during its new legislative period. Some who are hostile to Morocco have left the Parliament.
The article states that the good news is the election of “one of Morocco's friends”, Alain Cadec (EPP, France) as chair of the European Parliament's fisheries committee. Cadec, “who was vice-chair of the fisheries committee during the previous legislative period, has always supported Morocco's position in the negotiations” for a fisheries agreement. However, the article adds, “while the Moroccan party can be glad about the election of Alain Cadec, it risks frowning when it learns that the first vice-presidency of the fisheries committee has gone to Isabella Lövin (Greens, Sweden) - an old acquaintance of Morocco, but in the bad sense of the term”. The article states that “friction between the members of the future fisheries committee bureau will not be lacking when political issues as thorny as those of the Sahara are raised”.
It would therefore seem that the controversy around this agreement is not yet ready to disappear. (FB)