Messahel: “Morocco isn’t entitled to impose conditions if it wants to join the African Union”

Countries seeking to join African Union (AU) membership cannot do it by setting conditions, as stipulated in the constitutive act of the Pan-African organization, Minister of Maghreb Affairs, African Union and Arab League Abdelkader Messahel said Wednesday in Algiers.

“No country can ask for African Union membership by setting conditions. (Morocco’s) condition, according to some, is the suspension of the SADR (Arab Saharawi Democratic Republic). At no moment does the (AU) constitutive act mention this condition,” Mr Messahel told Channel 3 of the Algerian Radio in a reply to a question about Morocco’s possible adhesion to the AU.

“You want to be member, that’s ok, but without any condition. There is no condition for membership freeze, for withdrawal or for suspension. A suspension is only announced in the case of an anti-constitutional change of government in any African country,” he underlined. 

“The African Union has its own criteria,” Mr Messahel added.

 “When we adhere to an organization, we should join it under its own principles, which are its fundamentals and foundations”.

Morocco’s requested accession to the AU can’t be conditioned by virtue of Article 29 of the Constitution of the Pan-African Organization, he said.

“When we join an organization, we must go about it in keeping with the fundamental principles and foundation of this organization. Any African State wanting to join, and this is the constitutive act of the AU, which stipulates it, must do it according to the criteria established by the Constitution itself,” Mr Messahel explained.

The constitution “is crystal-clear and Article 29 stipulates the conditions for accession. In this article, a country that wants to join the AU, must apply through an official request to be conveyed to the President of the AU Commission, who then distributes it to all member states,” he added.

“If the request secures the agreement of 28 countries (simple majority), this country is thus allowed to adhere to the African Union but without any conditions,” Mr Messahel said to this effect.

Asked about a possible request by Morocco to Algeria for the latter’s support to Morocco’s bid to rejoin the AU during the recent visit to Algiers of the Special Envoy of the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, Mr Messahel affirmed that the envoy was carrying a message from the King of Morocco to the President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, focusing on bilateral relations and the situation prevailing in the region.