EU, Morocco Strike Fisheries Deal After 6-Yr Gap
Date: 29-Jul-05
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Aine Gallagher and Edward Ricketts
The 25-nation EU will pay Morocco 144 million euros ($173.8 million) over four years for 119 EU trawlers, mostly Spanish and Portuguese, to fish in the North African state's Atlantic coastal waters.
The accord is smaller in scale than the previous 1995-99 agreement, which was worth 500 million euros and covered all of Morocco's coastline, including the Mediterranean, giving access to 629 European vessels.
A decline in Morocco's fish stocks due to overfishing scuppered attempts at reaching an EU-Morocco deal in 2001 as both sides disputed the financial compensation and the extent of fishing rights to be granted.
"What we've achieved today is a balanced agreement," Moroccan External Trade Minister Mustapha Mechahouri told a news conference in Brussels.
The EU's return to Moroccan waters also reflects greatly improved political relations between Spain and Morocco, which hit a low-point under former conservative Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Aznar was ousted last year by Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who made restoring cooperation with Rabat a top priority.
EU vessels will not be allowed to catch shrimps, octopus and squid under the new deal which starts in March 2006, pending approval by EU member states and the European Parliament. This was Spain's preserve under the 1995-99 accord.
"Other types of fisheries which were covered under the previous agreement are not covered by this agreement because of the fact that on the basis of scientific evidence the state of health of these stocks are endangered," EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg told reporters.
A total of 11 EU states -- France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain -- want to fish in Morocco's waters.
"There will be a huge fight for fishing rights," said an EU diplomat, adding that 500 requests had been submitted. Only 119 vessels will be allowed to fish Morocco's waters, he said.
