The port of Barbate in Albufeira, Spain, woke up on Saturday under cloudy skies, mirroring the judicial storm that came from Luxembourg. The Court of Justice of the European Union issued a ruling against the trade and fishing agreements between Morocco and the European Union.
At the fishermen’s tavern, where fishers gather every morning for coffee before heading out to sea, faces looked tired and filled with anger and despair—the sector has been struggling for years from consecutive blows.
Thomas Pacheco, president of the Fishermen’s Business Association in Barbate, stated: “If the European Commission is interested in ending the fishing sector, let them come and take the ships. We cannot continue like this.” Although he anticipated the decision, it did not lessen his sense of frustration, noting that entire families rely on the sea for their livelihood. He accused European officials of aiming to destroy essential sectors, saying, “We are at their mercy, and the worst part is they don’t have the courage to make clear decisions about a fleet that seems to bother them.”
Pacheco expressed his anger toward Europe’s repeated decisions, which he believes “ignore the fact that limiting fishing means destroying the lives of sailors and their families.” He added that this recent ruling further complicates matters for shipowners who have invested significant money in their equipment to be able to fish in Moroccan waters, questioning, “Who will now compensate them for those investments?”
Pacheco concluded by saying that the meeting scheduled with the General Secretariat of Fisheries next week could be crucial, as he hopes they will be able to learn the intentions of European officials and take appropriate measures to preserve the sector.
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