Moroccan diplomacy obtained, last week, the support of socialist MEPs in the European Parliament, in particular from the Spanish deputy Ignacio Sánchez Amor, coordinator of the human rights subcommittee and responsible for drafting and presenting the annual report of the hemicycle.
El Confidencial and Publico reported that a large number of Spanish parliamentarians received emails from Moroccan embassies in several European countries on the eve of the vote. There is talk of rejecting the amendment presented by Spanish MEPs Miguel Orbán and Manu Pineda, from the far left.
Among these messages is a letter from the Moroccan ambassador to Denmark, Khadija Rouissi, to MEPs from the Danish Social Democrats. In her missive, the diplomat declares: “I would like to express my firm confidence that you will demand a balanced perspective and that you will oppose this unfounded amendment, which would be more harmful than useful, while the institutions of the European Union and the Morocco is making efforts to strengthen mutual trust and understanding.”
The amendment in question provides that “particular attention should be paid to the human rights situation in illegally occupied territories, including situations of protracted occupation, such as Palestine and Western Sahara”.
During the vote, the Socialists, led by Spanish MEP Sánchez Amor, proposed splitting the proposed amendment and voting on each part separately. In the first phase, MEPs discussed removing the phrase “like Palestine and Western Sahara”, before the proposed report could be voted on.
386 members of the European legislative institution voted in favor of removing this term, compared to 110 who opposed it within the left and the Greens, in addition to 24 abstentions.
In addition to the Socialists, the majority of liberal representatives from the Renew Europe group and the European People’s Party voted in favor of deleting this passage.
This article is originally published on .yabiladi.com
