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The regional fisheries management organization stated it was taken “by surprise” by the ECJ’s decision that “appears to be of a political nature in its content.”
But the chamber went on to dismiss the European court’s decision by recalling a similar situation in 2015 when the ECJ’s motion to annul the EU-Morocco agreements “was invalidated on appeal.”
“The European Court’s decision remains an inappropriate interference in foreign policy between sovereign states,” the chamber noted, arguing that the ruling actively interferes in the economies of many European countries that rely on fishing in Moroccan waters.
The statement goes further to note the decision’s failure to “take into account the great development in the southern provinces of the Kingdom of Morocco, as well as the field considerations of the fishing sector in the Moroccan Sahara, at a time when international diplomatic missions are increasingly opening.”
This was a sentiment echoed by several Members of the European Parliament (MEP) who voiced their opposition to the court’s decision last week. The European politicians emphasized that the ECJ’s ruling ignored “political realities on the ground” in favor of an outdated argument by the Polisario Group.
Over the years, many EU Parliament-commissioned and independent reports have documented how the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement has benefitted many locals in the Western Sahara region as well as Europeans.
For the Mediterranean Chamber of Fisheries, the court’s ruling, if upheld, will only effectively decimate a large part of the region’s economy and affect the livelihoods of thousands of Moroccans and Europeans that depend on the region’s fishing as a sustainable source of income.
