King Mohammed meets EU agriculture and fisheries commissioner

King Mohammed VI received in Rabat Thursday Franz Fischler, European agriculture and fisheries commissioner, who was accompanied by the head of the European Commission in Rabat, Lucio Guerrato, and general manager of fisheries at the Commission, Stessen Smidt.

Moroccan fisheries minister, Thami El Khyari, secretary of state for foreign affairs, Taieb Fassi Fihri and head of the sovereign’s office, Mohamed Rochdi Chraibi, attended the meeting.

The European official is paying this Thursday a short visit to Morocco for talks on fisheries cooperation between the kingdom and the European Union.

This is Fischler's second visit to Morocco since the Morocco-European Union four-year fisheries accord expired last November.

Fischler's spokesman told MAP bureau in Brussels that the European Commissioner will set with Moroccan officials "a concrete timetable" of negotiations on a new accord. The accord will be of "a new type", the spokesman said.

Morocco refused to renew the fisheries accord binding it to the European Union under which nearly 600 European trawlers, mainly Spanish and Portuguese, used to operate in Moroccan waters.

Morocco had called for a new partnership formula that preserves the Kingdom's sea resources. Moroccan officials and fisheries professionals argue that the new partnership should seek the promotion of joint ventures in fisheries-related sectors such as shipyards, ship maintenance seafood processing and fish-farming.

With national territorial waters extending over 1.2 million KM2 and with a 3,500-km long seacoast, Morocco has huge sea resources and harbors over 840 fish species. In 1998, Sea products exports have earned Morocco $ 740 Million (7.4 billion Dirhams), recording an increase of 10 % compared to the previous year.