In Mid-2014, Mauritania signed a two-year, $222 million-worth contract with the European Union to allow European ships to fish on Mauritanian coasts. The developments of the Crisis with the EU dominated the public parliamentary hearing attended by Mauritania’s Minister of the Interior and which featured trenchant criticism of the behavior of the EU.
The frailty of Mauritania’s monitoring of its own coasts in the past, in addition to the failure of Mauritania and Morocco to coordinate and cooperate, has made it easier for the European Union not to take agreements with Mauritania seriously during the last few decades. Now, however, the time is rife for respecting the current agreement and implementing all of its articles.
