EU commissioner returns to Morocco next week for more talks on fisheries

European commissioner for agriculture and fisheries will be returning next week to Morocco for more talks over the fishing agreement issues while technical meetings, started Wednesday in Rabat, are carried on this week.

Fishler told MAP as he was leaving Morocco on Thursday he will return to Morocco to "try and settled pending difficulties and end the deadlock in negotiations."

He added that ten hours of discussions with Moroccan officials did not enable the two sides to overcome obstacles. We have made some progress but there are still major difficulties, he added voicing optimism and citing limits that the European Union should not surpass.

On Wednesday, the EU official met prime minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, fishery minister, Said Chbaatou, and secretary of state for foreign affairs and cooperation, Taieb Fassi Fihri for the 8th round of fishery talks incepted in September.

Morocco is pressing for balanced cooperation taking into account fish-resources preservation and promotion of the kingdom's fishery sector. After expiry of the agreement in Nov.1999, Rabat would not have a classic agreement under which 500 trawlers, Spanish mainly, would operate at will in Moroccan waters in exchange for 125 million EUROs annually.