Morocco, EU to resume technical talks on fisheries

Morocco and the European Union will resume Technical Talks on Fisheries on Thursday in Rabat, announced Said Chbaatou, fihery minister.

European experts will travel to Morocco on Thursday to carry on contacts with Moroccan officials, Chbaatou told the Moroccan journalists who were accompanying prime minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, during his visit to Iran last week.

Morocco and the EU renewed, during a visit this Jan.13-15 to Morocco by EC chairman, Romano Prodi, resolve to carry on negotiations to reach a mutually-profitable agreement.

Since the previous Morocco-EU fishery agreement expired in November 1999, over 500 European trawlers, mostly Spanish ones, stopped all fishing activities in Moroccan waters.

Negotiations are said to be stumbling over the agreement duration and compensation.

Meanwhile, Spanish minister of agriculture, fishery and food, Miguel Arias Canete, called Spanish fishermen to start prospecting new areas, pending the conclusion of a new Morocco-EU agreement. While he stressed ongoing efforts to reach an agreement are a "priority," he said an alternative is to look for fishing areas in Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia and Senegal.

Fishing professionals in Galicia (northwestern Spain) demonstrated on Sunday to press for the signing of an agreement and reject all conversion offers. The committee of support to the regional fishing sector estimated at more than 37 billion pesetas the losses incurred by the trawlers which used to operate in Morocco.

In Spain's southern region of Andalusia, trade unions said they will conduct starting next February 2 an exhaustive control over Moroccan fish exports transiting Spain to Europe. If on February 2, Morocco and the EU fail to sign an agreement, the blockade on these exports will be total, reports Spanish "Antenna 3" TV station.

Over 60 tons of Moroccan fish transit daily via the southern port of Algesiras.