Cancellation of agreements between Morocco and the European Union: what consequences?

On Jawad Kerdoudi
President of the Moroccan Institute of International Relations (IMRI)

Let us first recall that relations between Morocco and the European Union (EU) are old and diversified. Indeed, the first trade agreement dates from 1969. It was followed in 1976 by a cooperation agreement, and in 2000, by an association agreement establishing a free trade zone.

In 2008, the Kingdom obtained advanced status which grants it all the benefits of membership except participation in EU governance. Which is Morocco’s leading trading partner and also the largest foreign investor in the Kingdom.

Appeal
In 2019, Morocco obtained the extension of agricultural and fishing agreements with the EU to the Saharan provinces. However, the Polisario, supported by Algeria, filed an appeal with the Community Court to annul the said agreements. The EU court ruled in favor of the Polisario in 2021, due to the lack of consent of the “people of Western Sahara”, and in violation of the principles of the right to self-determination and the relative effect of treaties.

The European Commission and the Council of the EU immediately filed an appeal with the Court of Justice of the EU against the General Court’s decision. Three years later, on October 4, 2024, the European Court of Justice rejected the appeal from the European Commission and the Council of the EU. It maintains the cancellation of the agricultural and fishing agreements with Morocco on the grounds of the absence of the explicit consent of the “Sahrawi people”. It requires that agricultural products exported from and coming from the Southern Provinces bear the label “Western Sahara”.

However, it grants a period of one year before the application of these measures relating to the agricultural agreement. As for the fishing agreement, it expired in July 2023 and no longer poses a problem. Morocco’s response to this decision of the European Court of Justice was firm and rapid. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced, through an official press release, that Morocco was not involved in the legal proceedings, and that the dispute concerns the Polisario and the Council of the European Union. He adds that the decision is tainted by legal errors and suspicious facts, and that the Court of Justice has blatantly sided with the Polisario. It has also replaced the UN, which is responsible for the political settlement of the Sahara question.

The ministry asks the European Commission and the Council to respect its commitments made when signing the agreements in 2019, and to guarantee them legal certainty. The ministry’s press release recalls that no agreement will be signed that does not include the Saharan Provinces.

Importance «capital»
We can note with satisfaction the position of Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and of Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who declared “the capital importance that grants the European Union its partnership with Morocco, which is old, vast and deep.

They added: “The European Union firmly intends to preserve and continue to strengthen close relations with Morocco in all areas.”

For his part, José Manuel Albares, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, emphasized the strategic partnership between the EU and Morocco, as well as the desire to maintain it. As for the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it described the partnership between the community body and Morocco as essential on the political, diplomatic and economic levels.

Other EU members (France, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Austria, etc.) have also expressed their attachment to the strategic partnership between the EU and Morocco. In conclusion, the interests between Morocco and the European Union are so important, particularly with regard to the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration, that a solution should be found within the framework of the negotiation of new agricultural agreements. and fishing in the coming year. This is especially true since almost all of the 27 EU members supported the Sahara Autonomy Plan presented by Morocco to the UN in 2007.