No agreement was reached during the third round of talks between the EU and Morocco, yesterday in Rabat. The parties have agreed to meet again at the end of the month.
The European Commission and the government of Morocco will hold a fourth round of negotiations in Brussels from 30 January to 1 February.
The parties provisionally agreed on the technical issues, while the financial chapter remains still subject of discussion, according to Spanish news outlet Canal Sur.
Morocco doesn’t want to receive less than the 36,1 million € it received annually under the previous fish agreement. But an independent analysis of said agreement concluded that it was a financial hang-over for the Union: the negative turn-over constituted a loss of millions of Euros.
In addition, the Moroccan fleet has grown in capacity in recent years, rendering the Moroccan government less eager to seal the deal for less money.
Though the European Commission intends to fish in Western Saharan waters, it has still not obtained the consent from the Saharawi people, as legally required. Former UN under-secretary general for Legal Affairs, Dr. Hans Corell, has said the following on the EU-Morocco fish accord: "It is obvious that an agreement of this kind that does not make a distinction between the waters adjacent to Western Sahara and the waters adjacent to the territory of Morocco violates international law".
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The conflict phosphates - four decades of plunder
For over 40 years, a Moroccan state-owned company has exported phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara.
Record low number of importers of Western Sahara phosphates
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One of the richest coastlines in the world
The fish stocks of occupied Western Sahara have not only attracted the interest of the Moroccan fleet: other foreign interests are also fishing in the occupied waters through arrangements with Moroccan counterparts. Along the Western Saharan coastline, a processing industry has emerged.