Brussels, 16/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 15 July and at any rate before the summer, the European Commission and Morocco are to resume negotiations for a fisheries agreement. This is now confirmed by convergent sources - European Commission and Council - but no exact indication has been given about the content of the Commission's proposal. The dossier is currently being examined by Council groups and experts from Member States. It is still too soon to give details of the content of a future agreement, authorised Commission sources explain, pointing out that all depends on the guidelines that the Council sets out, but that the idea is to work on an agreement of the “partnership” variety, of “smaller format” than the earlier agreements. Community fleets concerned would be composed more of small boats than of large units (whose fishing capacity would be harmful to resources off the Moroccan coasts). The agreement would also serve to develop local companies and preserve resources.
The Moroccan sector held its assizes in Casablanca on 14 June. “The crisis that the sector has lived through over the past decade is salutary”, one of its leaders, Hassan Chami, said on this occasion. The crisis has allowed a whole sector to reposition itself compared to the requirements of safeguarding resources, and given the fact that competition is fiercer on international markets. Fishing, by way of 592,000 tonnes of fish unloaded, would each year bring in 8 billion DH (EUR 800 million) for the Moroccan economy and would represent 16% of overall exports. The first agreement with the European Union had been signed in 1988 for 4 years. It had been renewed three times by 30 November 1999, at that time with a financial compensation of EUR 500 million (281 million for the first agreement, 408.4 million for the second, and 60 million paid directly by shipowners). A Morocco/Russia fisheries agreement had not been renewed. Morocco has a limited agreement with Japan.