Despite earlier claims from European Parliament legal experts that the present contract is in conflict with international law, the Commission has adopted a draft for a new agri-food and fisheries agreement with Morocco with no mention of the controversial issue of occupied Western Sahara.
Western Sahara, originally a Spanish colony, has been occupied by Morocco since 1975. The UN Security Council adopted a peace plan in 1991, but little has happened since, and few nations have recognised Morocco’s sovereignty claim as legitimate.
A controversial fisheries agreement between the European Union and Morocco went into effect in 2006. The agreement provides for the benefits to be transferred to the West Saharan people, 160,000 of which living in refugee camps since more than 30 years, but critics say there is no proof that such has been the case, and the European Parliament’s legal experts found last February that the agreement was contrary to international law.
Consequently Isabella Lövin, a Swedish Green member of the EP Fisheries Committee, asked Commissioner Maria Damanaki if the issue of benefits to the Saharan people had been raised in joint committee meetings with Morocco, and whether the Commission was satisfied with that nation’s implementation.
In a written reply Ms. Damanaki claimed that the Commission has asked for detailed information on the subject, expected to be delivered “by the first quarter of 2010” (ending on March 31).
“In any case, the Commission would like to underline that some activities of the sector support programme do benefit the people of Western Sahara, notably in the area of support to professional training”, she added at the time.
In June, three months later, the Union’s Ambassador to Morocco Eneko Landáburo echoed the Commissioner’s contentions, saying that he saw “no problem” with the legalities in the agreement, but that the Moroccan government had still not yet come in with a response to the Commission’s call for study on the socio-economic impacts on the population of Western Sahara, as envisioned in the agreement.
In the Commission press release announcing the adoption of a draft new agreement to take force next year, Western Sahara was not mentioned.
The draft will now be passed on for discussions and possible finalisation to the European Parliament and the Council.