Sahara News
by Ali Haidar
The European Parliament is due to vote on the new Morocco-EU fisheries agreement in a plenary session on February 13 after it definitively endorsed the agricultural agreement by an overwhelming majority on January 16 in Strasbourg.
The European Parliament, as announced recently in the House of Representatives by Moroccan Minister of Agriculture Aziz Akhannouch, will actually discuss the draft fisheries agreement, in a plenary session on February 13.
Speaking at the weekly question time at the lower house of the Moroccan parliament, Aziz Akhannouch invited the MPs to remain mobilized to snatch another success after the adoption in Strasbourg of the agricultural agreement with 444 votes in favor, 167 votes against and 68 abstentions.
Analysts deemed the final adoption of the Farm Agreement as a stinging blow to the opponents of Morocco and its territorial integrity. Actually, the new agreement extends to products of the Sahara the preferential tariffs allocated by the EU to products from other regions of the Kingdom.
The Morocco-EU fisheries agreement, which also covers the waters of Western Sahara, has already been approved by the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee, which decides on substantive issues, on January 23, with a large majority of 17 votes in favor, 7 against and 2 abstentions.
This was the final step before the ultimate adoption of this agreement in a plenary session.
Thus, Brussels will have put an end to the procrastination and petty blackmail of the Polisario, Algeria and their relays in Europe who seek to amputate the Sahara from the rest of Moroccan territories.
The Polisario’s allegations about an “illegal exploitation of the Sahara resources” by Morocco have thus been deflated. The separatists and their mentors should realize that there is no solution to the Sahara conflict other than in the framework of the Moroccan proposal of a large autonomy for the disputed territory.
