On Monday 28 September, the European Commission adopted several proposals to extend the Protocol for the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania by one year, until mid-November 2021. This announcement was made on 9 July (see EUROPE 12524/6).
The current Protocol expires on 15 November 2020 and had already been extended for one year in November 2019 to avoid an interruption in fishing activities.
The Fisheries Agreement with Mauritania is the EU’s most important mixed agreement, both in financial terms and in terms of fishing opportunities (see EUROPE 12487/15).
Between September 2019 and February 2020, four rounds of negotiations took place with Mauritania for the renewal of a fisheries agreement, without success.
Due to Covid-19 and the difficulties in completing negotiations on a new agreement in time, in June 2020 the EU Council authorised the Commission to negotiate a further renewal of the Protocol for a maximum of one more year.
In the fifth round of negotiations (7 July 2020), negotiators decided on a second extension of the Protocol for a maximum period of one year.
The EU Council and the European Parliament must rapidly ratify the legislative texts, so that they can be signed by both parties before 15 November 2020, when the current Protocol expires.
Link to one of the proposals: https://bit.ly/3mY27nT (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)