In disregard of two EU Court rulings, the EU Member States have today authorized the EU Commission to negotiations with Morocco for a new fisheries protocol that will also cover occupied Western Sahara.
Two months after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that no Fisheries Partnership between the EU and Morocco can be applied to Western Sahara, the EU Council voted in favour of negotiating a new fisheries protocol with Morocco that will include the waters of occupied Western Sahara.
The EU Commission announced its intention to start the talks with Morocco one month ago. The text of the negotiation mandate was released at the same time, stating that the EU considers that "it is possible to extend the bilateral agreements with Morocco to Western Sahara under certain conditions", but that the arrangement is subject to a resolution of the conflict in a UN context.
Sweden had stated it would oppose a mandate for a new protocol in February 2018 "because Sweden considers that the proposed mandate does not meet the requirements of international law."
On 27 February this year, the EU Court of Justice ruled that the EU-Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement is only legally valid if it is not applied to Western Sahara. The ruling was in line with the Court's previous ruling of December 2016, concluding that no EU trade or association agreement could be applied to Western Sahara - due to its "separate and distinct" status - without the consent of the people of that territory.
In a hearing at the European Parliament earlier this week, lawmakers expressed outrage at how the Commission sidestepped them to push through a new agreement covering occupied Western Sahara, in violation of EU Court rulings.
As EU ambassadors give their green light to a new Morocco trade deal, the public is still denied access to the very agreement they are voting on - a striking case of secrecy in Brussels.
A wave of reactions is rippling across Europe following the news that the EU is moving ahead with a new trade agreement in occupied Western Sahara. The vote is scheduled for tomorrow.
WSRW can today reveal a leaked EU document showing plans to continue trading with products from occupied Western Sahara, in direct violation of earlier rulings by the EU Court of Justice. A vote will take place this Wednesday.