Spain Seeks EU Support as Morocco Fishing Agreement Nears Expiration

"It is a European agreement. I will try to first activate, as always, the European measures, and then those of Spain. We will seek support mechanisms that could apply both to our shipowners and our fishermen," Planas said, during the European Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting, which is being held at the request of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which have a large fleet in Moroccan waters and are concerned about the future of this agreement.

The Spanish minister also recalled having discussed this agreement with the Moroccan authorities during his recent visit to the kingdom. The agreement between the EU and Morocco, which offers licenses for 128 European vessels including 93 Spanish ones, expires this summer and the negotiations for its renewal will be conditioned by the decision of the Court of Justice of the EU, which should intervene in September. What will happen after July 17, the expiration date of the agreement? Planas intends to ask this question to the European Commission.

In September 2021, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in favor of the Polisario Front, which denounced that the agreement with Morocco had been concluded without the consent of the Sahrawi people. The fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco and its implementation protocol came into force on July 18, 2019. They allow the 128 vessels from Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Ireland, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to fish in Moroccan waters.