BRUSSELS – Spanish MEP Idoia Villanueva denounced the exclusion of the Polisario Front from the ongoing negotiations on the fisheries agreement in force since July 2019 between the European Union (EU) and Morocco, which is currently the subject of a legal case before the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), a few months before its expiry, Spanish media reported.
On 17 July 2023, the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement, illegally extended to Western Sahara and awaiting the final decision of the European courts, will expire. The Luxembourg ruling is expected after this expiry date. And the European Commission is already working on an alternative route, in the face of the predictable CJEU ruling, writes Spanish online newspaper Publico.es
Quoted by the newspaper, MEP Idoia Villanueva, from the Spanish party Unidos Podemos, denounced the fact that these talks “are opaque and do not take into account the Polisario Front”, despite previous landmark rulings by the European court.
“European justice has been clear: the Polisario Front must take part in the negotiations on the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement. However, the European Commission is negotiating behind closed doors with Morocco and excluding the Sahrawi people. We demand explanations and that the law should be respected”, said Villanueva, who sent a question on the subject to the executive of Ursula von der Leyen.
Four years ago, the EU court invalidated the trade agreements between the EU and Morocco. But the pact remains in force, pending the final decision of the CJEU, Europe’s highest court. So by July, there would no longer be a legal framework for Morocco to issue fishing licences to EU vessels.
And in 2021, the EU Court of Justice ruled in favour of the Polisario Front, which claimed that the agreement with Morocco had been concluded without the consent of the Sahrawi people.
As a reminder, the agreement in question allows 128 European vessels, including 93 Spanish ones, to fish illegally in the waters of Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco since 1975.
For a decision in favour of the Saharawi people
Everything indicates that the decisive sentence will fall under the Spanish presidency of the EU, which will begin on 1 July. It is expected to reaffirm previous decisions, supporting the claims of the Polisario Front, the legitimate and only representative of the Saharawi people.
In this context, the newspaper Publico.es believes that a refusal by the European justice system would add tension to the troubled waters of the Brussels-Rabat relationship, recalling that last year the European Parliament’s commission of enquiry into the Pegasus scandal certified the Moroccan government’s interference in the internal affairs of member states. At the same time, the corruption case that erupted in late 2022 in the European Parliament, in which Morocco is heavily involved, pilloried Rabat.
In addition, the Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, was pessimistic about the renewal of the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement.
Quoted by the Spanish media, Planas recalled that during the last Council of Ministers held in Brussels a few weeks ago, the consequences of the end of the fisheries agreement with Morocco, whose extension is “very complicated”, were examined.
As a reminder, the European Commissioner for Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius, had recently invited the EU-27 to examine ways of new fishing possibilities within the framework of the EU-Mauritania agreement, since it might be “impossible to avoid an interruption” of the fishing activities of EU vessels in the waters of occupied Western Sahara.
