Fisheries agreement EU - Morocco

Brussels, 22 May 2006

Following a series of previous agreements that involved the Saharawi waters, which were vehemently denounced at the time by the Frente POLISARIO, the European Union has just committed a very grave blunder by ratifying a fisheries agreement with Morocco that would include the maritime zone of Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa.

Giving in to their colonialist leanings, and aiming at perpetuating the colonial fait accompli in Western Sahara, Spain and France have drawn the rest of the Member States of the European Union into their reckless adventure that consists in drawing up and signing an agreement that is nothing but an act of international banditry and plundering, which will undoubtedly represent a dark page in the history of the European Union.

Bowing to the wishes of Spain and France, Europe knows very well that, thirty years after the start of the conflict, the whole international community still does not recognise Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Acting in this way, the European Union has disregarded the legal status of Western Sahara as established by the United Nations. 

In this context, the opinion of the UN Under-Secretary for Legal Affairs, dated 29 January 2002, has appropriately stressed the fact of Western Sahara being a Non-Self-Governing Territory that has been included in the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories since 1963. Resolutions 1514 and 1514 approved by the UN General Assembly in December 1960 and article 73 of the UN Charter demonstrate very clearly that the United Nations has developed certain rules that govern the protection of natural resources of a Non-Self-Governing Territory, rules that the European Union has readily chosen to contravene in the case of Western Sahara.

The Frente POLISARIO considers that the ratification by the European Union of the fisheries agreement concluded with Morocco constitutes a massive enterprise of plundering and amassing of natural wealth of Western Sahara and a flagrant violation of international law.

The Frente POLISARIO, which will use every means to defend its legitimate rights, would like to pay a well-deserved tribute to countries, such as Sweden, that have actively opposed the plundering and depletion of the resources of the Saharawi people.

Mohamed Sidati,
Minister Delegate for Europe,

Member of the National Secretariat of the Frente POLISARIO