The European Union expressed the crucial importance of its partnership with Morocco this Thursday, April 4. A statement from the head of diplomacy of the 27 insisted on this fact at a time when a significant page in the bilateral relationship is being played out.
Linked by a multidimensional strategic partnership, launched on June 27, 2019 in Brussels, the two actors have strengthened their ties since that date to raise them to the highest level. The “Euro-Moroccan Partnership for Shared Prosperity” covers several aspects including economic convergence and social cohesion, a space for political consultation and cooperation on security, as well as cooperation on migration and the environment. and the fight against climate change.
On Thursday, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borell, demonstrated the great importance of this partnership for Europeans, following a telephone interview with the Minister of Foreign Affairs , African Cooperation and Moroccans living abroad, Nasser Bourita.
This partnership is “more important than ever in the current geopolitical context”, he underlined, without putting words on this particular context. The head of European diplomacy was certainly referring to the situation in Gaza, to developments in the political and security situation in the Sahel, to the initiatives and movements carried out by certain regional actors which are causing Europeans to worry, as well as the affair underway at the level of European justice concerning the Morocco-EU fisheries and trade agreements.
The two heads of diplomacy thus discussed ways to strengthen this strategic partnership and bilateral and regional issues. “We discussed how to give new impetus to the EU-Morocco partnership,” he wrote on his X account.
I spoke with Minister Bourita on several bilateral and regional issues.
The European Union is currently trying to negotiate an agreement on migration with Morocco, in the wake of similar agreements concluded with Tunisia and Egypt in recent months.
With June’s European Parliament elections fast approaching, European Union officials are trying to secure deals with countries in North Africa, particularly where the main migration routes are, so that migration is not not the main issue of this electoral meeting.
Furthermore, the European Union, through the European Commission, has been in the middle of a legal drama at the level of the European Court of Justice since an opinion was issued in September 2021 concluding that the agricultural and food trade agreements were invalid. fishing agreements concluded with Morocco in 2019.
The cause of this Euro-European affair, between the institutions of the Old Continent, comes down to an appeal made by the Polisario which rejected these agreements including the Moroccan Sahara. The Polisario militia has in fact been trying for nearly 50 years, with the financial and logistical support of Algeria, to wrest sovereignty of this territory from Morocco.
With the expiration of the fishing protocol agreement between Morocco and the EU on July 17, great concerns arose among the main beneficiaries of these agreements, in particular the fishing agreement which allowed a total of 138 trawlers to the EU to fish in Moroccan waters.
The European Commission and the Council of the European Union appealed the decision of the European justice, rejecting any illegality of the agreements concluded, thus reflecting the desire of the European partners to protect their interests and achievements in the face of a possible non-renewal of the agreement, and their continued commitment to Morocco as its main regional and African partner.
On March 27, on the sidelines of a meeting of the 27 Fisheries Ministers in Bruges, the Spanish Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Luis Planas, returned to the subject confirming the importance of the agreements concluded between Morocco and the European Union. “It’s a little more than a fishing agreement. It is one of the elements that unites a neighboring country, partner and friend of the European Union, like Morocco, with the European Union. Therefore, it is also important to consider these consequences,” he said.
Likewise, the minister insisted on the legality of the agreements, recalling that the European Commission, the Council of the EU and member states such as Spain believe that the agreement, concluded in 2019, “complies with community law and international law.
This article is originally published on fr.hespress.com
