Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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128. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps that have been taken by his Department in line with European Union to ensure that the European Union-Morocco Association Agreement does not cover territory in occupied Western Sahara. [33560/22]

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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129. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps that have been taken by his Department in line with the Court of Justice of the European Union decisions to ensure that the European Union agreement with Morocco on additional liberalisation of trade in agricultural and fish products does not cover territory in occupied Western Sahara. [33561/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 128 and 129 together.

As the Deputy will be aware, trade policy is a competence of the European Commission under Article 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and referred to as the Common Commercial Policy.

The EU and Morocco established a Free Trade Area as part of the EU-Morocco Association Agreement, signed in 1996, which entered into force on 1 March 2000. The EU and Morocco also signed an Agreement on additional liberalisation of trade in agricultural products, processed agricultural products, and fish and fisheries products, which entered into force in October 2012.

Both parties agreed upon a protocol establishing a Dispute Settlement Mechanism, which entered into force in 2012. Negotiations for a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) started in 2013. The last negotiating round was held in April 2014.

The EU-Morocco Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA), concluded in March 2019, allocates fishing opportunities for the EU in exchange for an overall financial contribution of €208 million. A substantial part of this contribution is used to promote the sustainable development of the fisheries economy in Morocco and the Western Sahara.

Under the FPA, Ireland is entitled to receive quotas as follows over the four-year period – Year 1 – 3,099 tonnes, Year 2 – 3,281 tonnes, Years 3 & 4 – 3,646 tonnes in the FPA’s industrial pelagic category. However, no Irish fishing vessels are currently operating in Morocco and no Irish fishing vessels have operated in Morocco since 2007. The allocation has, in the past, been swapped with other member states.

When the process of negotiation began on the current FPA agreement, Ireland sought that any agreement should be more transparent and should include clear and specific reporting on the benefits of the Agreement in the Western Sahara. Ireland supported the adoption of the FPA, issuing the following statement on its adoption:

'Ireland stress the importance of a strong political and economic partnership between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco.

Ireland underlines the importance of complying with EU law, of which international law may be considered an integral part when entering into bilateral agreements. We have taken careful note of the ““Contribution of the Council Legal Service on the Draft amended Fisheries Agreement and draft new Fisheries Protocol with Morocco- compatibility with the case-law of the Court”.

Ireland has consistently emphasized that an agreement has to be consistent with the judgment of the Court of Justice handed down on 27 February 2018 in Case C-266/16. We take the content and form of the Contribution as evidence that the Council Legal Service considers that entering into the presented agreement is fully consistent with the judgment of the Court of Justice handed down on 27 February 2018 in Case C-266/16 and does not prejudice the status of Western Sahara. Ireland continues to support the United Nations process to find a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution for Western Sahara.

On the basis of the above, Ireland supports the adoption of the Council decision on the amendment of the Fisheries Agreement and the Fisheries Protocol'.

The question of the territorial applicability of certain EU-Morocco agreements is the subject of ongoing legal consideration at the European level. Ireland notes the October 2021 European Court of Justice ruling that annulled the EU’s previous approval of agriculture and fishing agreements that allowed Morocco to exports goods from Western Sahara. That decision is currently being appealed. Ireland will await the outcome of this process and, together with our EU partners, give careful consideration to the decision reached.

More broadly, Ireland’s long-held position is that Western Sahara is a non-self-governing territory. We support the United Nations Security Council Resolutions, which support the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

Finally, in 2021, under the new EU Trade Policy Review, the EU has offered to discuss modernising trade and investment relations with Morocco, to better adapt them to today’s challenges, notably in respect of value chains and the greening and digitalisation of respective economies.