Brussels — Minister and Representative of the Polisario Front in Europe, Mohamed Sidati has condemned the new Protocol to the EU-Morocco Fisheries Agreement signed on 24 July 2013, in an official statement reached SPS.

Sidati said "In a shamefully secretive procedure, which excluded both EU member states and the Frente POLISARIO, who are the representatives of the Saharawi people, the European Commission is attempting to rush the European Union into a flawed and illegal arrangement with Morocco, which will resume the unacceptable practice of Moroccan authorities profiting from the waters of the illegally occupied Western Sahara by charging EU vessels to fish there."

Sidati added "In December 2011, the European Parliament voted to revoke the interim Protocol and to withdraw EU fishing vessels, following the European Commission's failure to ensure that the Protocol complied with international law in its treatment of Western Sahara. We expect that EU member states and the European Parliament will act again to uphold international law by rejecting this new Protocol."

"No country in the world recognises Morocco's claim to Western Sahara." This attempt to legitimize the theft of Western Sahara's natural resources detracts from the ongoing efforts by the United Nations to find a peaceful solution to the ongoing occupation of Western Sahara. Nor will the ineffective human rights provision in the new Protocol help the situation of the Saharawi people, who continue to be oppressed on a daily basis by the forces of Moroccan occupation."