Why would the EU waste their taxpayers' money - millions of Euros annually - on giving it to the Government of Morocco in order to fish in waters which are not Moroccan?
Morocco claims the territory of Western Sahara, but it has never laid any claim to its bordering waters.
In this regard, the international law of the sea is quite clear: Morocco cannot be considered to be the legitimate authority for Western Saharan waters.
While there are certain laws and regulations regarding fishing activities in international waters, none of them include paying a government to have access to waters which are not theirs.
And yet, via the EU-Moroccan fisheries agreement, the EU considers to enter into an agreement in 2013 which involves paying Morocco to fish in what surely must be considered non-Moroccan waters. Even in absence of a worldwide recession, this would be nothing less than a squander. Through the 2006-2010 fisheries agreement, the EU paid Moroccan government 144 million Euros for the illegal fisheries.
The former agreement was simply throwing Euros out of the window: The European Commission’s own evaluation of the previous agreement showed that "each euro spent by the EU only generated 83 cents turnover and 65 cents direct and indirect value added accruing to the EU". "These are the lowest cost-benefit ratios of support to the European fleet across all ongoing bilateral agreements", stated the report. No wonder the European Parliament’s budget committee wanted the fisheries agreement stopped.
Through receiving ample financial support, Morocco is allowed it to continue the illegal occupation of its neighbouring state.
Further underlining the EU's strange decision, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic has declared an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) over the same Western Saharan waters, thereby officially claiming its exclusive rights on the oil, gas and fisheries resources offshore the disputed territory. If any agreement were to be signed regarding the fish offshore Western Sahara, the other party of the agreement should have been the government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, not Morocco.
The EU considers to pay Morocco to fish in occupied Western Sahara. An EU-Morocco Fisheries Agreement from 2013 would be both politically controversial and in violation of international law.
The international Fish Elsewhere! campaign demands the EU to avoid such unethical operations, and go fishing somewhere else. No fishing in Western Sahara should take place until the conflict is solved.
