Brussels, 30/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Franz Fschler met Moroccan Fisheries Minister Said Chbaatou and Foreign Office Minister Taieb Fassi Fehri Monday morning, whereas, also in Brussels, Euro-Moroccan technical consultations were beginning. When speaking to the press, they recalled that there was no question of renewing the fisheries agreement as it had existed. They marked their readiness to seek a balanced agreement that "takes account of the interests of both parties". "We have come to propose to the Commission a plan for global cooperation", Mr. Chbaatou said, based on: a) a "partnership on the ground" (reception structures, off-loading capacities); b) support for "the restructuring of the Moroccan fleet" as well as to the development of the capacity for catch storage, the fish-farming sector; c) the promotion of a partnership between the European and Moroccan private sectors.
Theoretically, no mention is made in the Moroccan plan of maintaining the possibility for the Spanish or Portuguese sector of directly participating in the fishing activities in Moroccan waters. But "we are prepared to envisage this indirectly for limited quantities, for this type of fishing and for a determined region for a given period of time". It would be a question of providing for specific measures to make Community fishermen wait" the time it takes for the Moroccan fleet to be restructured. Such a restructuring is fairer than to ask Morocco to suffer the consequences of a resource fishing policy it regards as untenable, neither in budgetary terms or in terms of employment, and that would slow down the development of the Moroccan sector. "It's not, on our part, a tactical position and nor are we closing the door, but we wish to develop our fisheries sector".
"Our concern is not of a financial nature", the two members of the Moroccan Government stressed over and over again, stating that they expected of the Community that it apply to fisheries relations with Morocco (as with other third countries) what it has decided for itself, ie., resource protection. "Anything is possible, but in the respect of this imperative, resource preservation"". This is said to have fallen by 50%, several Moroccan boats are said to be on the quayside for lack of catches and are held to observe a biological rest period extended from 2 to 5 months. Foreign fleets may no longer hope for better treatment that that meted out to national fishermen, said the Moroccan Minister. Both ministers stressed their country's will to reach a result rapidly. Even though they do not give particular importance to the 30 November deadline put forward by the Commission, they are proposing holding weekly meetings with the Commission, "one day a week, in Brussels and Rabat alternatively".
In addition, the Foreign Office Minister does not intend that a link be established between the fisheries sector and the general concessions in the framework of the Association Agreement, especially the agricultural sector. "Morocco does not want to mix everything up", said Fassi Fihri, for whom negotiations on the revision of mutual access systems for agricultural products are "premature". They seem to him "difficult to contemplate as long as we have not measured the impact of the multi-functional approach to agriculture" that the EU proposed to the WTO. Better to assess the balance of reciprocal agricultural and industrial concessions and their consequences on the Moroccan economy, and study the economic and social risk of exposing certain sectors of agricultural production to competition, before entering negotiations on new concessions. The Euro-Moroccan meeting continued into Monday evening.