Spanish political parties have preempted the Madrid and Rabat consensus on the demarcation of maritime borders by calling on the Parliament of the Canary Islands to work towards the creation of an exclusive economic zone off the Atlantic archipelago.
Spanish parties have written to the central government in Madrid to work on the establishment of an exclusive economic zone, according to Spanish newspaper Atlantico, noting that it is a matter of establishing a maritime strip that serves as the geographical limit of the archipelago in front of the maritime space of Morocco.
Participants of the initiative indicated that there would be no legal reasons for the national government to refuse the establishment of the exclusive economic zone for the Canary Islands.
Before proceeding to define and raise the exclusive economic zone, the coordinates of the external borders are submitted following the same criteria as for the exclusive economic zone of the Balearic Islands and Levante, where international law forces negotiation with neighboring countries.
The proposal includes defining the maritime area overlapping with Morocco at a 27 degrees 40 north latitude as the southern limit for negotiation and as an inalienable line, so that the waters south of it can only be negotiated with those who enjoy the sovereignty of the state.
The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has expressed his forecast that the maritime delimitation negotiations between Spain and Morocco, which resumed this week, will be long.
According to an interview with Spanish news agency EFE, Torres points out that the negotiations avoids unilateral decisions, as Torres has emphasized that he has been holding “almost daily” conversations in the last weeks with the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, about the reactivation of the working group on maritime borders.”
Torres has also added that the islands “will be represented in these meetings” and that the “position defended by Spain will integrate the interests of the Archipelago.”
The issue of maritime borders has been prevalent between both Morocco and Spain for years, but negotiations were halted during the bilateral diplomatic crisis from last year. The rapprochement that followed, resulting from Spain’s official support for Morocco’s autonomy plan on the Sahara, has resumed talks on the matter, catapulting the issue back on top of the bilateral agenda between Rabat and Madrid.
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