Brussels, Nov 27, 2013 (SPS) - The Greens has criticised, in a press release issued Wednesday, the vote by European Parliament’s fisheries committee on the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement, to be voted on next December 10th.
EP’s fisheries committee voted today, Wednesday, in favour of a new EU-Morocco fisheries agreement, which includes the territorial waters of Western Saharta.
The Greens said that the ratification of such agreement “would again give the EU the right to fish in Western Saharan waters despite the fact the government of Morocco has no right to trade the resources of Western Sahara under international law.
Commenting after the vote, Green fisheries and human rights spokesperson, Mr. Raül Romeva said that the MEPs on the fisheries committee “have today voted to ignore international law in endorsing this agreement.”
The release indicaated that this agreement “is the most shameful episode in the EU’s neo-colonial fisheries policy.”
“Under the agreement, the Moroccan government grants fishing rights to the EU fishing fleet to fish in the waters of Western Sahara, where it has no right to do so,” said Mr. Romeva.
He urged the European Parliament as a whole “to reject this agreement, which is a blot on the foreign and fisheries policies of the EU.” (SPS)
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