Brussels, 26/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The first round of talks on a partnership agreement on fishing between the EU and Morocco began on Monday afternoon in Brussels. Discussions are to continue until Friday 29 July. The new fisheries agreement should be very different from the previous agreement which expired in November 1999 and has not been renewed since. It is expected to mainly concern small vessels (essentially Spanish) and exclude catches of cephalopods and crustaceans. The European Commission, which is conducting the discussion in line with the negotiating directives adopted by Council, considers the new agreement must take the state of fish stocks into account as well as the evolution of the Community fleet and Morocco's restructuring of the fisheries sector. Rabat has set the condition that the agreement must concern specific projects (product value enhancement and job creation) and that it must concern the fisheries least used by the Moroccan fleet.