European countries have long been willing collaborators in Moroccoís illegal occupation of Western Sahara.
As PN went to press, the fisheries committee of the European parliament was set to vote on a fisheries partnership agreement with Morocco that enables European Union (EU) vessels to fish in Moroccan and Western Saharan waters - costing the EU over E36m a year.
On 7 November, the European parliamentís budget and development committees both called on the fisheries committee to reject the agreement on the grounds of its cost inefficiency and its lack of benefit to the people of Western Sahara.
The Fish Elsewhere campaign is mobilising letters to MEPs to influence a vote in the European parliament, likely to be held mid-December.
In December 2010, the former UN legal counsel, Hans Corell, told Swedish radio that the European commission had "misinterpreted", in "a very astonishing way", his legal opinion on natural resource exploitation in Saharawi territory.
On 19 November, the European parliamentís intergroup for Western Sahara called on the European high representative, Baroness Ashton, to pressure the Moroccan government to immediately and unconditionally release 24 Saharawi prisoners of conscience who have been on hunger strike in Sale prison near Rabat in Morocco since 31 October.
wsahara.org.uk