The population of the Moroccan southern provinces benefits from the fisheries and farm incomes reaped from the related agreements concluded between Morocco and the European Union. The European Commissioner insisted that this issue falls under the exclusive responsibility of the UN, and that the EU can only support this process by refraining from interfering. These tariff preferences would contribute to the socio-economic development of the region and hence to its stability. The European Commissioner noted that 45,000 local jobs depend directly or indirectly on the fisheries sector and that 14,000 jobs depend directly on farming. In this context, the European Commissioner recalled that the agreement provides for a monitoring mechanism that will regularly assess the benefits derived by the region population.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 30, 2018 18:33 UTC