Brussels, 22/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 22 May, the EU Council of Ministers formally adopted the regulation setting out the arrangements of the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement which will come into effect from 1st June and will last four years, and may be renewed (see EUROPE 9194 for Parliament's green light). Only Sweden voted against the text, to emphasise its concern over the application of the agreement off the Western Sahara, Morocco's sovereignty over which is challenged. Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Ireland adopted a declaration in similar vein to be recorded in the Council minutes. Member States had already removed the final obstacles to the adoption of the text at the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives on 10 May (see EUROPE 9091).
The previous fisheries agreement with Morocco expired in 1999 and renewal negotiations, which continued until 2001, failed and caused a break in fisheries relations between the EU and Rabat. Discussions resumed in 2004 and the two parties signed an agreement in July 2005.
According to the regulation on the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement, the following fishing possibilities have been granted to EU vessels in Moroccan waters: 20 Spanish seine netters for small-scale fishing of pelagic species (sardine, anchovy and other small pelagic species) in the north; 20 Spanish and 10 Portuguese longliners for small-scale fishing (meagre and sparidae) in the south; 17 Spanish, 4 Portuguese and 1 Italian vessels for fishing demersal species (black hake, swordfish etc.); 23 Spanish and 4 French pole-and-line vessels for fishing tuna; a quota of 60,000 tonnes granted to trawlers from several EU countries for the industrial fishing of demersal species (sardine, sardinella, mackerel, horse mackerel, anchovy) to be shared in the following way - Netherlands (19,400 tonnes), Lithuania (15,520t), Latvia (8,730t), Germany (4,850t), France (2,267t), Poland, Ireland and United Kingdom (2,500t each), Portugal (1,333t) and Spain (400t). The EU's financial compensation to the Moroccan government is 144 million euro for the period (36.1 million euro per year). To this are to be added: 3 million euro (over four years) as part of the MEDA programmes for support measures for fishing sector operators (advice for companies and associations, access to credit for SMEs etc.) and adaptation measures for the institutional and regulatory framework, plus 3.4 million euro per year in charges to be paid by the ship owners authorised to fish in Moroccan waters. The total EU financial compensation is, therefore 163 million euro for the period 2006-2010.