Morocco - Spain: The oil in the heart of a controversy

New crisis in perspective between Rabat and Madrid. Its origin, oil. On 16 March the government Mariano Rajoy has authorized the company Repsol to initiate surveys offshore the Canary Islands, specifically in the continental shelf in front of Morocco, while the issue of maritime delimitation between the two countries n is not yet resolved. The file is still on the menu of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf under the United Nations. Two weeks after this decision, no response from the team Benkirane. It took a movement of the Industry Minister, Abdelkader Amara in Spain last Thursday for a member of the Moroccan government decides, finally, on this issue. On a very diplomatic PJDiste expressed that such decisions should never be price unilaterally. The Spanish press called the remarks "threats" and "back problems with Morocco."

Challenge in the Canary Islands

But Morocco is not the only one. Saturday in Tenerife, over 1,000 protesters broke the pad against the government's unilateral decision Rajoy. Monday is around Paulino Rivero, the president of the autonomous government of the Canary Islands region to step up. "They basically are wrong when they claim to impose an activity that seriously threatens our economic engine, our biodiversity and directly affect the water supply of the islands. And they're wrong on the form because they are turning their backs on the law and Canary Islanders, "he wrote on his blog.

Not at all in making lace, and in line with the rejection of the population, Paulino Rivero promised that his account executive use all remedies to paralyze this authorization including bringing the matter before the Spanish Supreme Court to declare precautionary suspension able to save serious damage to the islands. For the record in 2004, the same court had paralyzed prospecting company Repsol Canary Islands for environmental reasons.

President of the Canary Islands to Morocco expected

This course of action advocated by Rivero, also leader of the Nationalist Party "Coalición Canaria", has been welcomed by the deputy, Pedro Quevedo, the formation of "Nuevas Canarias". In a statement, he recalled that Rabat considers the waters been prospected for Repsol as part of its national territory. This member of the Congreso has filed a non-binding proposal, discussed this week in the lower chamber of Spanish parliament to discuss the subject thoroughly. Commenting on the warning Abdelkader Amara, Pedro Quevedo maintained that the government's unilateral decision Mariono Rajoy is "opportunistic" and "prejudicial to the interests of the Canary Islands."

This authorization will be at the heart of interviews Aura Paulino Rivero, the president of the autonomous government in the region of Canary Islands, with Moroccan officials during his official visit in April, in the kingdom.