The Diplomat
The Government has adopted a series of emergency measures to help the fishing fleet affected by the termination of the fisheries protocol between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco, which expired yesterday and whose renewal depends on what the EU Court of Justice decides on the application of this agreement in the waters of Western Sahara.
The protocol was signed in 2019 for a period of four years. With its expiration, the fishing fleet operating in the Moroccan fishing grounds will have to suspend its activity, which will particularly affect Spain, since 92 of the 138 licenses fishing in the area correspond to its flag, specifically the Andalusian, Galician and Canary fleets (however, only 21 Spanish vessels requested license to do so between 2021 and 2023).
Under the agreement, Morocco allowed fishing in its waters and in Saharawi waters in exchange for 50 million euros per year and another 12 million euros contributed by EU shipowners. Before the signing of the 2019 protocol, European vessels had not fished in the waters for a year for lack of agreement.
At the beginning of last June, the European Commission confirmed that negotiations for the renewal of the agreement had not yet begun pending the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (expected at the end of this year) in relation to the appeal lodged by the European Council against the decision of the same court to annul the protocol because it affected the waters of Western Sahara without having previously consulted the population of the former Spanish colony.
On July 13, the fifth session of the Joint Committee in charge of monitoring the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between Morocco and the EU met in Brussels to try to reach a decision that takes into account the interests of both parties. At the end of the meeting, Morocco and the EU welcomed “the satisfactory implementation of the fisheries agreement and its protocol in its various dimensions”, and undertook, in a joint communiqué, to “continue their cooperation, as provided for in the partnership agreement in the field of sustainable fisheries, which remains in force”.
The day before, Moroccan Foreign Minister Naser Burita declared in Rabat that the implementation of the protocol had been “satisfactory” and that cooperation between the two parties had been “positive and mutually beneficial” during these four years, and warned that the Moroccan Kingdom will decide on its future fisheries cooperation with the EU in the light of the government’s own assessments and in consultation with its European partners.
On Friday, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, declared that Spain “is very clear” in favor of “the European Union and Morocco concluding a new protocol for the next four years” and was “optimistic” to “move forward and allow to conclude the new protocol as soon as possible”.
In any case, everything points to the fact that the agreement has, for Morocco, much more symbolic and political importance than economic (in fact, Rabat is keeping up its sleeve the possibility of signing similar agreements with China, the United Kingdom and even Russia), since its approval implies the implicit recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the waters of Western Sahara. An example of this is the declarations made on July 14 by the president of the Regional Council of Dakhla-Ued Eddahab, El Khattat Yanja, to the state news agency MAP, in which he assured that the partnership agreement with the EU in the field of fisheries constitutes “a recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces”.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food yesterday accelerated the procedures so that the fishing fleet affected by the termination of the fisheries protocol between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco can receive aid “as soon as possible”. The objective of this aid, published yesterday by the Official State Gazette (BOE), is “to give an immediate response to this situation and alleviate the socio-economic impact on the fleet that fished in the Moroccan fishing grounds,” as reported by the Ministry. The aid will have 302,000 euros in 2023, financed 50% by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Of this amount, 120,000 euros will go to shipowners and 182,000 euros to crew members.
