Fisheries agreements: negotiations stumble between Madagascar and the European Union
Aerial view of the port of Tamatave, the largest in the country.
This is where the landing controls for European fishing vessels are carried out by officials from the Ministry of Fisheries.
© RFI / Sarah Tétaud
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Three years after the expiry in 2018 of the fisheries agreement between Madagascar and the European Union, discussions on a new, more equitable agreement are slipping.
A second round is scheduled in a few days and the stakes are high for both parties.
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With our correspondent in Antananarivo,
Sarah Tétaud
It is three years since the fishing agreement concluded in 2014 between Madagascar and the European Union, the largest fisherman in the Indian Ocean area, expired.
Three years since the boats flying the European flag no longer come to fish for tuna in the exclusive economic zones of the island.
Antananarivo and Brussels are therefore trying to find common ground.
Unlike regional fisheries agreements, explain international experts, fisheries agreements signed bilaterally are rarely beneficial for the country which opens its waters to deep-sea fishing. But Madagascar does not intend to sell off its resources. For the Big Island, the issue of this contract agreement is twofold: first, it is out of the question to accept derisory compensation. The country intends to revalue upwards the amounts of the previous contract and thus increase the economic value of its tuna resource. And this, whatever the development aid and technical and financial support granted by the Western authority.
Then, this agreement with the European Union is supposed to serve as a model for the next fishing agreements, with Asian countries in particular, whose contracts have just expired.
A framework agreement in a way, with terms made public, on which the authorities could base themselves to negotiate with the other big fishing nations and thus avoid the signing of opaque contracts.
Blocking points
Problem: the European Union, which almost agrees to double the amount of compensation granted in the previous contract, categorically refuses the sum requested by the Malagasy state, almost ten times higher.
"
An amount that could easily be obtained from other fishing countries, but unfortunately in a less transparent way
", regrets one observer.
And the other points which are still debated, such as the duration of the contract, the number of observers authorized to go on the boats to carry out the control of catches, the annual fishing tonnage, remain very secondary to really weigh in these negotiations.
According to several people present at the negotiating table, if no fair and reasonable compromise for both parties is found, the second round could lead to a "no deal" in the jargon, that is to say to abandonment of negotiations.
A substantial lack of income for the Big Island.
But also a significant shortfall for European ships.
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Madagascar
Agriculture and Fishing
European Union