The fishing agreement between the EU and Morocco will expire on July 17 and the European Commission is looking for an alternative to extend this agreement, pending the decision of the Court of Justice of the EU which should take place after this date.
In a judgment of September 2021, the EU court ruled that the trade agreements between the EU and Rabat, including the fishing agreement, were not valid, as they did not involve the Polisario Front. According to the agreement, 92% of fishing activities are carried out in Saharan waters. The Council of the EU and Morocco have appealed this decision, which allows the fishing agreement to remain in force until the final judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECHR) which should take place in a few months.
This situation benefits the 128 European vessels, including 93 Spanish, which will be able to continue to carry out their fishing activities normally in Moroccan waters until July 17, the expiry date of the EU-Morocco fishing agreement, in force since 2019. As part of this agreement, Europe pays 50 million euros per year to Morocco, recalls Público , specifying that by the July deadline, Rabat would no longer be able to issue fishing licenses to vessels from the EU.
The European Commission is working to avoid this scenario. “European justice has been clear: the Polisario Front must participate in the negotiations on the EU-Morocco fishing agreement. However, the European Commission is negotiating behind closed doors with Morocco. We demand explanations and that the law be respected, ”denounced for her part the Spanish MEP Idoia Villanueva (Podemos) who questioned the Council of the EU led by Ursula von der Leyen on this subject.
“The Commission has started exploratory work with the aim of starting to negotiate a new protocol as soon as possible, in full respect of the ongoing process of the European Court of Justice,” explains an EU spokesperson. The eagerly awaited stop should take place at the beginning of July, coinciding with the start of the Spanish EU presidency. “We hope for a favorable sentence […] We have always defended the legality of the agreement,” Luis Planas, Spanish Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, recently declared in Brussels.
