950829

EU threats will

not force fish

accord: Morocco

RABAT: Morocco said on Tuesday it would not allow threats by the European Union to force it into submission after the collapse of talks on a fishing accord.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ennahdi el-Idrissi, quoted by the official Moroccan news agency MAP, said remarks by certain EU officials would not help resolve the problem although he left open the possibility of resuming negotiations with the EU.

"We regret that certain EU officials found it necessary to make declarations on this subject," Idrissi said. "As a matter of fact, these declarations only led to confusion and will not help in any way achieve a definitive solution to this problem.

"Morocco, which remains ready to honour its traditional ties with the European Union, nevertheless refuses to have a solution dictated to it under threats as it will not allow itself to be influenced by the blockades imposed by some Spanish fishing organisations which we believe are counterproductive."

He was reacting to news from Brussels on Monday that talks on a new three-year fishing accord between the two sides had collapsed. EU Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino said she would propose that the EU review its relations with Rabat.

Bonino said Morocco had rejected the Commission's final offer on the extent of cuts to fish quotas that would have allowed the mainly-Spanish EU fishing fleet to return to Moroccan waters after a four-month deadlock.

The previous accord expired at the end of April and Morocco refused to extend the agreement, saying its fish stocks were on the verge of extinction. It demanded cuts of up to 65 percent in catches of octopus and squid. The EU offered a cut of 25 percent over three years.

Spanish fishermen, who had the lion's share of the 730 licences granted by Morocco under the previous accord, have threatened a widespread blockade of Moroccan goods.

The accord with Morocco is the EU's most important external fisheries agreement, providing a livelihood for 28,000 fishermen and fish processors in Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands.

The fishing accord gave Morocco, where 500,000 people rely on the fishing industry for their livelihoods, preferential tariffs for exports of tinned sardines to EU countries.

The EU accounts for 65 percent of Morocco's foreign trade. Rabat is negotiating an association agreement with the EU and King Hassan has made clear that full membership is his utlimate goal.-Reuter