By DAVID JOLLY, The New York Times
PARIS — Europe’s top fisheries official pledged Tuesday to work for a new fishing treaty with Morocco after the previous agreement was dropped last month by the European Parliament over concerns of overfishing and other issues.
The European commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, Maria Damanaki, said in a statement that officials were proposing an agreement that would be “in line with the position expressed by the E.U. Council and the vote in the European Parliament,” which rejected an extension of the previous treaty.
A vote on Dec. 14 to extend the treaty failed, 296 to 326, with 58 abstentions, amid opposition from legislators who argued that the treaty did not address concerns of overfishing, expensive subsidies and the rights of the people of Western Sahara, a disputed area claimed by Morocco.
Morocco responded after the vote to what it called Parliament’s “regrettable” decision, warning that it could damage its relations with Europe. It immediately ordered all European fishing boats out of its waters.
Carl Haglund, the Finnish member of Parliament who led efforts to end the agreement even after the body’s fisheries committee had approved it, said Tuesday that the deal failed mainly because it was “ecologically unsustainable and economically unsustainable.”
Under the terms of the deal, 119 European Union vessels would have continued operating in Moroccan waters in exchange for a $46 million payment to Morocco. It would also have provided major subsidies — up to $57,560 per European job, according to the commission’s own assessment — to keep them fishing.
Conservationists argue that Europe’s fisheries policy has created a bloated, inefficient fleet that is able to survive only by the grace of government handouts and subsidies.
In recommending that it be rejected, Parliament’s Development Committee said the Moroccan agreement had received “one of the most negative evaluations ever made regarding any bilateral fisheries,” with fish stocks in an “alarming” condition and no “substantial positive impact on the viability of the sector in Morocco from a development perspective.”
But in Spain, hard hit by the economic crisis and suffering from the highest unemployment in Europe, the collapse of the Moroccan fishing deal has been seen as a disaster. Hundreds of fishermen whose jobs have been put into limbo protested on Monday in Barbate, a battered Andalusian fishing town, and the Spanish government has called for European money to support the affected fishermen.
Ms. Damanaki, who issued her statement Tuesday after meeting with Miguel Arias Cañete, Spain’s new fisheries minister, said the two had “discussed the compensation possibilities under the European Fisheries Fund for fishermen affected by the interruption of fisheries.” Further meetings will work on the details.
Oliver Drewes, a spokesman for Ms. Damanaki, said that there was overwhelming interest among European Union governments to reach a new agreement, and that officials in Brussels were “positive” that a deal would be reached within six months.
Mr. Haglund said he had no objection “in principle” to an agreement with Morocco, adding, “But the Parliament can’t just rubber-stamp an agreement when the evaluation shows it is a terribly bad deal.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
First published on January 11, 2012 at 12:01 am
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