Brussels, 26/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - "Following the latest efforts that the Council asked of me, I am forced to conclude that it is impossible to reach agreement based on the current brief. I am now ready to report on negotiations to the Council. The first task for Ministers will now be to focus on the restructuring the Community fleet concerned". This was the bitter observation of Commissioner Franz Fischler following the meeting, in Brussels on Monday, with Morocco's Fisheries Minister Said Chbaatou.
The reasons for the deadlock lie foremost in the impossibility of finding a balance between the volume of the catch and the price to pay. "The question was too important for Morocco and the Union, for a compromise to be sought", Fischler declared, placing emphasis on the fact that his last offer, aimed at increasing by 15 million euro in all (185 million euro for the whole period instead of 170 million according to the last proposals) the amount of compensation, was rejected. "The Moroccan Minister came knowing full well that he had no margin for manoeuvre to agree to compensations of less than 80 million euro a year", the Commissioner stressed. "The two parties made substantial concessions during negotiations that were undertaken constructively and in a friendly manner. However, one can but note that Morocco's proposals regarding fishing rights and the technical conditions do not present a sufficient interest for an important segment of the European Union fleet", Fischler complained.
Other problems where linked to it, notably to the number of boats and the fishing conditions (obligatory unloading, fishing zones, machines, biological rest periods) for certain determining commercial fishing, in particular for cephalopods and shrimps. As an example, the Moroccan offer foresaw, for the last two stocks, a reduction in the activity which, compared to the 1999 level, would have respectively totalled 60% and 62% the first year to culminate at 88% and 86% the third year. As a result, the Moroccan proposal "cannot be seen as attractive to major sections of the EU fleet because its makes the fishing activity unprofitable due to the conjuncture of a series of factors, including the new fishing areas that cause the exclusion of deep sea fishing, the obligatory unloading, the machines as well as the extension of biological resting periods, the increase in licence fees", explains the Commission. On the other hand, the negotiation stumbled over the financial budget that the Community may grant to Morocco in the context of the new agreement, characterised by a significant reduction in the number of Community boats and by the introduction on a series of new conditions having a negative effect on attractiveness and profitability of fishing.
Mr Fischler thus announced his intention to present a draft regulation aimed at financing a specific programme for the fleet concerned. The aim is to allocate these resources to the breaking-up of of ships under identical conditions to those applied in the framework of FIFG (Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidelines). This proposal follows on from the proposal made by the Nice European Council on 7 December 2000, which had invited the Commission to propose a specific action programme for the restructuring of the Community fleet that had exercised its fishing activities in the framework of the former fishing agreement with Morocco and to prorogue the present system of aid to the inactivity of this fleet.
Franz Fischler recalled that, from the outset, the European Union has insisted that any eventual agreement should duly take into account the interests of Morocco, and above all the need to develop this country's fishing sector. It has proposed mechanisms allowing the Moroccan fisheries sector to be developed, mainly through financial aid to infrastructure and port services, the development of coastal fisheries, training and research programmes. The Commissioner also recalled that the Community had agreed to: - radically change the management of a large number of its traditional fisheries by agreeing that most of the Community vessels should be forced to disembark their catches in Moroccan ports; - reduce the Community presence in Moroccan waters by way of a new agreement, given that the effort to reduce the fleet would continue during the two years that the agreement still has to run; - concede new technical conditions (fishing areas and fishing equipment, which were less advantageous for the fleet but which would have contributed to the overall reduction of the fishing effort for the stocks concerned); - agree to a substantial increase in the number of Moroccan crew members on board its ships, thus promoting employment in the fisheries sector and helping to improve the level of qualifications in the Moroccan fishing industry.