ISDS Case Map
Western Sahara
The European Court of Justice has in an answer to a question from a Swedish court of appeal informed that private fisheries agreements with Moroccan authorities are not allowed outside of the context of the EU-Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement.
For the first time in almost three years, an EU member state fishing vessel has been detected in the waters of occupied Western Sahara.
The King of Morocco has ratified its dirty fisheries agreement with EU, allowing EU vessels to fish in Western Sahara waters under Moroccan occupation. The European Commission fails in geography regarding the location of the fisheries in communiqué.
The Saharawi Natural Resources Watch has called on all European Parliamentarians, to reject the new EU-Morocco fishing agreement, which will be voted in December in the European Parliament so as to “honor Europe and its peoples”.
European Commission president José Manuel Barroso was in Rabat on Friday to launch talks for an EU-Morocco free trade agreement. The decision may end up as a major headache for Brussels, however, as the issue of relations with Morocco is a highly sensitive one within some Member States and the European Parliament itself, where the rights of the Saharawi people of the Western Sahara are defended.
Le Sahara occidental n’est pas le Maroc. Aussi, l’accord de libre-échange entre le Maroc et l’Union européenne n’a pas à être étendu au Sahara occidental même si le royaume du Maroc s’arroge un droit de souveraineté. C’est la faille de cet accord, mis en œuvre depuis le 1er novembre 2012, qu’exploite la Confédération paysanne pour le dénoncer une nouvelle fois.
Without consulting with the Saharawi people in Western Sahara, the EU will next week try to conclude the talks on EU-Morocco fish deal offshore the occupied territory, under same terms as the one that was rejected by the European Parliament in 2011.
A new EU trade agreement that is set to boost the personal fortune of King Mohamed VI of Morocco is facing opposition because it promotes the exploitation of disputed territory of the Western Sahara.
On 14 February, a new and extended trade and agriculture agreement is up for vote in the European Parliament. No mention is made to the fact that produce from Western Sahara now will reach the European market, and that the main benefactor will be multinational firms and the King of Morocco – while the small scale farmers will stand to loose.
The Spanish agrarian organisation COAG is convinced that the impending EU-Moroccan agricultural trade liberalisation agreement could be illegal for implicitly including Western Sahara. COAG has now condemned French company Azura’s presence in the occupied territories.
