Frontpage          Contact          About the Campaign          DONATE          Read more     








Archive -2011
Archive -2010
Archive -2009
Archive -2008
Archive -2006



This campaign is an initiative of:




Morocco rejects visit from European Parliament
Last year, European Parliament’s Legal Services stated that EU fisheries in Western Sahara would be illegal if the indigenous Saharawi were not consulted. This week, Morocco refused the Parliament to travel to occupied Western Sahara to find out if they are.
Printer version    
In December 2009, the European Parliament’s fisheries committee had unilaterally issued a request to visit Morocco, with the objective to examine how the EU-Moroccan fisheries partnership agreement (FPA) is implemented.

After months went by without any official reply, Morocco has now officially rejected the Fisheries Committee’s proposal of visiting the territory, claiming the timing for such a visit “is not opportune”. This happens several months after Morocco first had left the impression to the European committee’s presidency that a visit by the Europeans was ok.

The Parliament’s own Legal Services had already stated that since the indigenous people in Western Sahara, the Sahrawi, are not consulted over the agreement, the EU-Moroccan cooperation must be in violation of international law. Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975, and EU is spending millions of Euros annually to pay the Moroccan government to allow mostly Spanish fishermen fish in the occupied waters. The fisheries are seen as a direct political and financial support to the illegal Moroccan occupation, while the Sahrawi object to the European vessels trawling their waters.

"It's a pity the Moroccan authorities do not grant the European Parliament the possibility to establish the facts on the ground”, said Isabella Lövin, one of the 13 members of parliament who had signed up to be part of the delegation.

It seemed an excellent opportunity to demonstrate whether the Saharawi population of Western Sahara benefits from the EU-Moroccan Fisheries Agreement, as the European Commission claims. It is really a pity, and also a bit strange", Lövin stated.

The negative response does not come as a surprise. The controversial EU-Moroccan fisheries agreement has been under fire during the last few months, especially following the legal opinion delivered by the EP’s Legal Services in 2009. The opinion questioned the legality of the agreement since there is no proof that the Saharawi people’s wishes and benefits had been taken into account.

Attempting to defend the much criticized agreement it had negotiated in 2006, the European Commission has repeatedly responded that “there is no proof that the Saharawi people do not benefit”. Yet, the Commission has still not presented any evidence backing that claim, and has up to now avoided mentioning the matter of the Saharawi peoples’ wishes altogether.

The European Commission only defense is a UN legal opinion from 2002. The author of that opinion, however, has stated he is “embarrassed to be European”, due to the Commission’s misuse of his text.

"It has been suggested to me that the legal opinion that I delivered in 2002 had been invoked by the European Commission in support of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement. I do not know if this is true. But if it is, I find it incomprehensible that the Commission could find any such support in the legal opinion, unless of course the Commission had ascertained that the people of Western Sahara had been consulted, had accepted the agreement and the manner in which the profits from the activity was to benefit them. However, an examination of the Agreement actually leads to a different conclusion", former under-secretary-general for Legal Affairs, Mr. Hans Corell, stated on the Commission’s misinterpretation of the document he wrote for the UN Security Councel.

During yesterday’s session of the Fisheries Committee, MEPs also asked about the state-of-play on that other request they’d made to Morocco earlier this year: to deliver a report on the impact of the FPA on the Saharawi population. The deadline for that report was set during the first quarter of 2010. The Committee still hasn’t received any official reply.

It is expected that Morocco’s report, when finalized, will claim that the agreement is beneficial to the “local population”, which is the way Morocco defines the people who have been moved into the territory in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention. Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara was rejected by the International Court of Justice in 1975. Other states, such as the US and the EFTA countries, have stated that their economic partnerships with Morocco do not cover Western Sahara.  






Top
News:

15.10 - 2019 / 15.10 - 2019THIS PAGE IS NO LONGER UPDATED
23.10 - 2015 / 23.10 - 2015Morocco continues to discard by-catches in occupied Western Sahara
29.06 - 2015 / 29.06 - 2015Moroccan government accused of fraud with EU anti-driftnet money
02.12 - 2014 / 02.12 - 2014Maria Damanaki opposed continued EU fishing in Western Sahara
18.09 - 2014 / 18.09 - 2014EU-Morocco fish deal: who's shown an interest so far?
18.09 - 2014 / 18.09 - 2014Dutch first to fish under unethical EU-Morocco fish deal
09.08 - 2014 / 09.08 - 2014UN former legal chief slams EU legal view as "preposterous"
21.07 - 2014 / 21.07 - 2014Illegal EU fish agreement with Morocco now ratified by King
14.03 - 2014 / 14.03 - 20149 detained, threats of jail if demonstrating against EU fisheries
11.02 - 2014 / 11.02 - 2014Here are the EU states that will benefit from the dirty fisheries
11.02 - 2014 / 11.02 - 2014Morocco adopts contentious EU-Morocco fish deal
10.12 - 2013 / 10.12 - 2013Occupied Sahara: EU undermining Human Rights on Human Rights Day
08.12 - 2013 / 08.12 - 2013More vids of demonstration and victims of EU/Moroccan plans in Sahara
08.12 - 2013 / 08.12 - 2013Western Sahara president asks UN intervention to stop EU and Morocco
08.12 - 2013 / 08.12 - 2013Many injured in protest against EU/Spain fish plans in Western Sahara
05.12 - 2013 / 05.12 - 2013EU fish plans illegal, 21 jurists and lawyers state
05.12 - 2013 / 05.12 - 2013267 organisations ask European Parliament to reject fish accord
04.12 - 2013 / 04.12 - 2013President of African Parliament calls on EU to respect Sahara rights
02.12 - 2013 / 02.12 - 2013Greenpeace: EU parliament must vote no to Western Sahara fisheries
18.11 - 2013 / 18.11 - 2013European Liberal Youth calls for no EU fishing in occupied Sahara






EN  EN ES FR

The EU considers to pay Morocco to fish in occupied Western Sahara. An EU-Morocco Fisheries Agreement from 2013 would be both politically controversial and in violation of international law. The international Fish Elsewhere! campaign demands the EU to avoid such unethical operations, and go fishing somewhere else. No fishing in Western Sahara should take place until the conflict is solved.
عريضة لوقف النهب

tn_4ar_510_lr_rgb_black.jpg

يحضر الاتحاد الاوربي لإبرام اتفاق غير اخلاقي جديد للصيد البحري مع المغرب في سنة 2013.

مرة اخرى، يعتزم الاتحاد الاوربي الصيد في المياه الاقليمية للصحراء الغربية المحتلة في خرق سافر للقانون الدولي. وقع هذه العريضة للتنديد بذلك.

"EU fisheries in Western Sahara must be stopped"




Western Sahara human rights activist Aminatou Haidar hopes for increased attention to the EU plundering of occupied Western Sahara.

READ ALSO

10.04 - 2012
Guardian: EU taking its over-fishing habits to west African waters?
15.12 - 2011
EU Observer: Morocco expels EU fishing boats
15.12 - 2011
BBC News: Morocco's fish fight: High stakes over Western Sahara
15.12 - 2011
European Voice: MEPs reject EU-Morocco fisheries pact
15.12 - 2011
Reuters: EU lawmakers reject Morocco fisheries pact






Human rights activist Malak Amidane denounces EU fisheries