On Monday 21 October, the Spanish Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Luis Planas, defended the “deepening of strategic relations” with Morocco, following the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union which annulled the fisheries agreement signed with the EU on the grounds that it did not take Western Sahara into account (see EUROPE 13497/12).
“We will respect the ruling, but we are politically very interested in deepening strategic relations with Morocco”, stressed Mr Planas in Luxembourg, prior to the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council.
Asked whether he thought the EU should consider a new agreement including the Front Polisario in the negotiations, Mr Planas said that the Union now had to “assess the consequences [of the judgments] from a legal and political point of view”.
The Minister also announced that he would be travelling to Rabat next Friday to take part in the ministerial meeting of the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM).
He will be meeting his Moroccan counterpart, Mohammed Sadiki, among others.
With regard to the meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), to be held in Limassol (Cyprus) in November, Spain is “not in favour” of reopening the debate on Total Allowable Catches (TACs) for the bluefin tuna stock. As far as bigeye tuna is concerned, Spain is defending the maintenance of the current quota for this species, explained Mr Planas. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)