MEPs challenge Morocco fishing deal

Group of MEPs claims deal breaks EU laws.

A cross-party group of 80 MEPs on Tuesday (13 September) announced plans to challenge the legality of a controversial EU fishing deal with Morocco. They argue that the way the deal was negotiated and implemented violates EU and international laws.

Andrew Duff, a UK Liberal MEP, and Raül Romeva i Rueda, a Spanish Green MEP, have the backing of enough MEPs (they need 74) to push a resolution to a full parliamentary vote on referring the agreement to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), in a bid to have the fishing deal suspended or amended.

Romeva i Rueda said the accord was “a blot on the EU’s foreign policy”, and that its legality under international law was “highly questionable”.

This is the first time that MEPs have used a provision under the Lisbon treaty giving them the right to refer EU international accords to the ECJ for a legal opinion.

The two MEPs said they hoped that a vote on the resolution could be held during the Parliament’s plenary session in October. Most of the signatories come from the Greens, the Liberals and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) groups.

Western Sahara

Citing “grave legal disquiet”, Duff pointed to two issues he believes should lead the ECJ to rule against the deal. One argument is that the European Commission, which negotiated the accord, failed to consult MEPs properly during the negotiations.

The other is that the agreement violates international law by including the disputed waters claimed by Western Sahara’s independence movement; this, the MEPs contend, bolsters Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara, which has been under Moroccan control since the end of Spanish colonial rule in 1976. “The only responsible course of action for the Commission is to revise this agreement with a view to excluding the waters of Western Sahara, for which the government of Morocco has no responsibility,” said Romeva i Rueda.

The Parliament’s legal service recommended in June 2009 that the accord should be suspended unless the waters of Western Sahara were excluded. The agreement has been provisionally in force since being signed by the Commission and the Moroccan government, but it has yet to receive the required approval of the Parliament.

The deal gives a fixed payment of €144 million to the Moroccan government in return for permission for EU boats to fish in its waters.

Member states in July backed a Commission recommendation to extend the deal by one year after the accord’s four-year term expired in February. They approved the extension despite a failure by Morocco to prove that the deal benefits the occupied territory and the Sahrawi population.

A Commission analysis seen by the Parliament’s fisheries committee said the deal was one of the most inefficient fisheries accords the EU has signed with other countries. The analysis is also vague as to the benefits to Western Sahara.

However, majority support for the MEPs’ resolution is uncertain. Struan Stevenson, a UK Conservative MEP and a vice-chair of the fisheries committee, said that while he has concerns about the EU-Morocco accord, he also has doubts over the legal challenge.

He said that Scottish trawlermen had evidence that their operations as part of the deal were providing some 600 jobs to Sahrawis. “Western Sahara benefits from this,” Stevenson said.

A spokesman for Maria Damanaki, the European commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, said the commissioner was monitoring the situation. He said that the Commission was awaiting political guidance from the Parliament on the EU-Morocco accord.

Commission officials also said that Damanaki wanted to include human rights and sustainability issues in future fisheries deals between the EU and other countries.

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