Morocco's 1995 association agreement with the European Union

In the years from 1992 to 1995, the European Union developed and proposed to the 12 non‐EU Mediterranean countries a new generation of association agreements, including free‐trade zones, increased financial help, and close cooperation in a variety of sectors. Of the Mediterranean ‘Twelve’, Morocco was the first country approached by the EU to begin discussions. The path to an eventual accord on a new association agreement between Morocco and the EU, however, was long and difficult. The process of intermittent negotiations went through several phases and lasted three‐and‐a‐half years, from the spring of 1992 to the autumm of 1995. The two parties had serious differences over an issue of great importance to Rabat: access for Moroccan agricultural products to the EU market. During 1994–95, a period when negotiations for an association agreement were in trouble over issues of substance, the EU was eager to negotiate a new fisheries agreement with Rabat to assure continued access for Spain's large fishing fleet to Morocco's rich fishing grounds. In the pursuit of these two agreements, the EU was able to forge an effective linkage between the two issues ‐ an association agreement and fisheries ‐ to its ultimate advantage. Morocco felt obliged to come to terms on the fisheries issue in order to obtain an association agreement. In the end, when agreement was reached on both issues in November 1995, Morocco's significant concessions on the fisheries issue did not bring it the concessions it was seeking on a new association agreement.