This article was originally published in Spanish
The Court of Justice of the European Union maintains that the agreements violated the rights of the Sahrawi people by failing to take into account the principle of self-determination.
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The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Friday in favor of the people of Western Sahara and confirms that the fishing and agricultural agreements signed in 2019 between the European Union and Morocco should have “obtain the consent of the people of Western Sahara” and that this consent “does not exist”.
However, the Court grants twelve months beforeexecute the agricultural verdict to avoid “serious negative consequences on the external activities of the Union”.
This judgment recognizes the Polisario Front, which is the representative of the Sahrawi independence movement, as a legal entity having the right to challenge these commercial agreements on fishing and agriculture, since these commercial activities take place in the territory of Western Sahara.
This final judgment of the European Court of Justice comes after the Commission and the Council filed an appeal in 2021 against the judgment of the General Court, which had already ruled in favor of the Polisario Front, which took the case to court.
Indeed, with the cancellation of the fishing agreement, Morocco could lose the 52 million euros per year which he should receive for four years for allowing 128 European vessels, most of them Spanish, to fish in the waters off the west coast of Africa. In Spain, the shutdown mainly affects the fleets of Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Galicia.
