Earlier today, the EU Member States gave the EU Commission green light to open direct negotiations with Morocco with a view to obtain a new fisheries protocol - one that will also be applied to occupied Western Sahara.
The Polisario Front, the UN-recognised representation of the people of Western Sahara, reacted wih a press release in which they say that "today's decision of the EU Council leaves no other choice to the Frente Polisario but to initiate new legal proceedings, on behalf of the people of Western Sahara, before EU Courts".
Read Polisario's full press statement here.
In February this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco is only legally valid if not applied to Western Sahara. The ruling followed the reasoning behind the Court's judgment of December 2016, which stated that no EU trade or association agreement with Morocco could be applied to Western Sahara, without the consent of the people of the territory.
No consent has so far been sought by the Commission or Council.
Heidelberg Materials deepens its role in Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara
The German company confirms once again that its operations in occupied Western Sahara are closely tied to Morocco’s infrastructure expansion in the territory - while continuing to dismiss the Saharawi people’s right to consent.
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
Only three companies imported phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara in 2025 - the lowest number ever recorded. The findings appear in our annual P for Plunder report, released today.
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.