Moroccan fishing professionals refuse new agreement with EU as prodi says negotiations are not interrupted

Moroccan high sea fishing professionals started this Monday a strike to express refusal of a new fishery agreement with the European Union, while chairman of the EC, Romano Prodi, said Monday negotiations are only suspended, not interrupted.

Associations of Moroccan fish professionals argue that a new agreement would put at stake Morocco's sea resources and called the government to "take into account the social cost of biological rest periods and guarantee that professionals be paid during these periods."

For Prodi, who is ending this Monday a visit to Morocco, negotiations for a new agreement were not interrupted, but only suspended. The EC official told a press conference in Rabat on Monday he will meet the group in charge of fishery within the commission to resume "soon" negotiations with Morocco. Although negotiations were slow, they are moving forward and are not far from an agreement, Prodi said, conceding there remains points that need to be "specified and clarified" before resuming talks.

Discussions between Morocco and the EU which started last October are reportedly stumbling over several items, mainly the agreement duration, the number of European boats and the financial compensation.

The previous four-year agreement -worth an annual 125 million Euros-- expired in November 1999, bringing some 600 European trawlers, mainly Spanish ones, to a forced mooring.