By Peter Olorunnisomo – The European Union’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that a European Union-Morocco fisheries deal was valid as long as it was not applied to the waters of the disputed Western Sahara territory since this would be a breach of the latter’s population’s rights.
The ruling by the bloc’s top court also served to avoid a clash between Brussels and Rabat.
“If the territory of Western Sahara were to be included within the scope of the fisheries agreement, that would be contrary to certain rules of general international law,” it said.
Morocco suspended ties with Brussels in 2016 after a lower EU court annulled an agriculture deal on similar grounds, although the ruling was later overturned and they are now pushing ahead with the pact.
Morocco controls most of Western Sahara and considers it part of its territory. It fought a 16-year war with the Polisario Front independence movement, which established the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
The United Nations says the region has a right to self-determination and campaigners have sought to challenge the EU’s trade deals with Morocco in the courts because they include the desert region.
“The Fisheries Agreement concluded between the EU and Morocco is valid in so far as it is not applicable to Western Sahara and to its adjacent waters,” the EU Court of Justice said in a statement on the judgement.
The legal advisor to the bloc’s top court had already warned in January that the deal should be invalid if it involves the flashpoint region.
The ECJ often but not always follows the legal opinions of its advocates general.
Western Sahara, a contested region since Spain withdrew from it in 1975, “does not form part of the territory of the Kingdom of Morocco,” the ECJ said.
Therefore, the region’s adjacent waters were not part of the “Moroccan fishing zone” mentioned in the treaty with the EU, and the agreement could not be annulled because of it, the court said.
The ruling comes in response to British-based campaigners Western Sahara Campaign UK who said Britain was wrong to uphold the EU-Morocco fisheries deal. Britain asked the European Court of Justice for advice.
“Today is good day for Western Sahara,” the group said on its Twitter account in response to the ruling.
The European Commission said it was studying the verdict to assess any economic impact it could have.
Previous rulings to the same effect have caused diplomatic tensions between the European Union and Morocco.
The court has said before that EU deals signed with Morocco could not include Western Saharan resources because its citizens had not been in a position to agree to its conditions.
In February of last year, Morocco’s government said it would end economic cooperation with the EU if it did not honour a farming deal.
Though largely a desert region, western Sahara has significant phosphate reserves and offshore fishing grounds.
The Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony controlled by Morocco where the Polisario Front group, backed by Algeria, is fighting for independence.
The Polisario Front filed the legal appeals against both the farm and fisheries deals that led to the two cases coming before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Morocco and the Polisario fought for control of Western Sahara from 1974 to 1991 after Spain pulled out, with Rabat taking over the desert territory before a UN-brokered ceasefire.
Rabat considers Western Sahara an integral part of Morocco and proposes autonomy for the resource-rich territory, but the Polisario Front insists on a UN referendum on independence.
The Polisario Front said earlier this month it is ready for direct negotiations with Morocco on the future of the disputed territory.
The two sides have not held direct talks since 2012.
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