Morocco-EU : Sweden opposes the renewal of the fisheries agreement

The Swedish government will vote against relaunching negotiations to renew the Morocco-EU fisheries agreement, expected to expire on the 14th of July. Stockholm believes that the ‘go-ahead’ requested last January by the European Commission would «contradict the international law».

This decision was made public twelve days before announcing the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)'s long-awaited ruling that would decide on the renewal of the 2014 fisheries agreement. On the 10th of January, the CJEU advocate general decided to cancel the current agreement.

The Polisario media platforms reported the news, without missing the chance of rejoicing over the Swedish rejection. However, the Swedish government clarified stating that its position is one that has not changed since 2011.

Stockholm’s double game

The Swedish government then led by a coalition of right-wing parties, opposed the European Commission’s proposal to initiate negotiations with the Kingdom on the exclusive fisheries agreement in the Sahara. For the record, the United Kingdom, Austria, Finland, Denmark, Cyprus and the Netherlands had also adopted the same position.

Stockholm’s position does not mean that the Swedish authorities forbid the private sector from operating in Western Sahara. This was later denounced by pro-Polisario NGOs. The Western Sahara Resource Watch issued a press release, last October, quoting the names of several Swedish companies working alongside their Moroccan counterparts in projects in the Sahara, extracting phosphate rocks, fishing, and bringing petroleum supplies.

The list made public by WSRW includes the name of a tour operator that promotes surf kit in Dakhla. The NGO also warned the Swedish government against that urging it to «ask companies not to engage in the territory».

While Sweden chose to oppose the renewal of the fisheries agreement, Denmark is strongly in favor of it.

The 2014 agreement is signed by Rabat and Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland and the United Kingdom to fish only in the Atlantic waters of the kingdom including the Sahara. The financial compensation has reached 30 million Euros per year distributed as follows : 16 million Euros intended to compensate Morocco for access to its resources and 14 million Euros dedicated to support the fishing sector in the country.