The deputy of Nueva Canarias in Congress, Pedro Quevedo, has demanded this Monday from the state president, Pedro Sánchez, the "immediate start" of negotiations with Morocco for the delimitation of the Canarian and Alawite waters, "with the participation of the Archipelago in these bilateral conversations." The spokesman for the progressive Canarians in the Lower House warned that the reactivation of prospecting in Tarfaya, off the coasts of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, "will be answered by the Canarian community, by conditioning the territory and present and future interests of the islands."
From NC they affirm that they already had a "high concern" in the face of the "escalation of unilateral decisions by Rabat contrary to international law and Sánchez's recent capitulation to the blackmail of the kingdom of Morocco expressed with support for the Alawite autonomist plan for Western Sahara, against the resolutions of the United Nations, in favor of the referendum on self-determination of the Saharawi people", but affirms that it has been "accredited this Monday" upon learning of the reactivation of oil, gas and tellurium prospecting in Tarfaya."
"After the unilateral annexation, that is, without the endorsement of the United Nations of the waters of Western Sahara and expanding its oceanic demarcation, which could affect the territorial waters of the environment to the Canary Islands with the approval of two laws by the Moroccan Parliament, in January 2020; now they are back to affect with another unilateral measure," denounced Pedro Quevedo.
A decision, he reiterated, on which Canarian society spoke out with "absolute forcefulness, and in a majority way, against." In this case, he observed, "without the median between the Canarian and Alawite waters being correctly" delimited, "as mandated" by international law of the sea. A situation that, as he recalled, is a consequence of the permits granted by the African country in 2017 for carrying out the prospecting and that were denounced by NC
Being aware that the reactivation of the same has been done in Moroccan territory, Quevedo pointed out that it is "an outstanding issue that neither the Alawite governments nor the Administration of the Spanish State, in recent democratic history, have wanted to face."
Nueva Canarias demanded that the Sánchez Government "get going" to delimit the median between the Canarian and Alawite waters in order to, "at least, have an element of certainty based on international legality."
It is "imperative", he demanded, "that the border line be set, the limit of the maritime territory between the Canary Islands and the African country", with the participation of the archipelago. "To the distance from the continent, the ignoring and making the Canarian society and its institutions invisible cannot and should not be added," Quevedo denounced.
The nationalist deputy in Congress warned that the Moroccan decision will be "answered by the Canary Islands by directly affecting the territory and the present and future interests of the islands." "The same concern, which led Nueva Canarias to mobilize and reject Repsol's oil prospecting in 2014 and 2015 due to the high risk to the marine environment, the coasts and the tourism sector and the sustainable development model based on renewable energies; resurfaces, on this occasion, with the work started in Tarfaya", they add from the party.
"Given the lack of knowledge of the existence of security guarantees that prevent spills that would seriously damage the Archipelago", Nueva Canarias demanded that the State Executive inform the Canarian administrations.
The progressive Canarians once again put on the table a proposal from Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción to seek comprehensive protection of the area through agreements that guarantee its preservation as an international environmental reserve, protected from prospecting and exploitation projects, "such as those that Morocco is launching and Spain decisively promoted not so long ago." Nueva Canarias recalls that it supported and supports said proposal and has made a new call to the Canarian and state institutions to support it.
