Despite earlier recommendations by the Budget and Development Committees in the European Parliament to reject the extension of the EU- Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement, the vote in the Fisheries Committee (PECH) today approved the extension.
As reported on CFP Reform Watch, the result of the vote in PECH was not as close as initially expected: 12 members voted in favour of the agreement, 8 voted against, and 1 member abstained.
The decisive vote in the European Parliament (EP) plenary will take place in December, 2011. The EP, however, has a limited ability to affect the deal as there will be less than three months remaining on the partnership after their final vote. The Council renewed the agreement on 28 February 2011, and it will run until 27 February 2012. The EP vote should not be underestimated however, as it may have a bearing on subsequent renewals.
The Agreement has previously been criticised in an external consultant review for providing the lowest cost-benefit financial returns to the EU of all ongoing bilateral agreements, in addition to documented human rights violations relating to fishing activities in the waters of Western Sahara.
Carl Haglund, the rapporteur in the Fisheries Committee, was very critical about the extension in his report as well, stating that the European Parliament (EP) should reject an extension on the basis that it is ecologically and environmentally unsustainable and that it has no significant macro-economic effect on either the EU or Morocco. However, an amendment was introduced, which effectively reversed the conclusions of his report and led to PECH’s approval of the EU- Morocco agreement, according to CFP Reform Watch.