The damage to Algerian-French relations puts the Memory Committee in front of the unknown

The fate of the Algerian-French joint committee to study the memory file, formed by Presidents Abdelmadjid Tebboune and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, has become unknown, after the diplomatic crisis that has hit relations between Algeria and Paris for more than a month, and its fate has become suspended on the future of these relations.
During the first six months of this year, the committee’s activity was remarkable, through the meetings held in Paris and Algiers, which were crowned by statements that spoke of achievements in terms of the looted archives in France, and an agenda was set for other meetings, even if an in-depth discussion was raised at the time about the French side’s dealing with the Algerian demands, which focused largely on receiving the original archives and not just digitized copies.
The last statement of this committee dates back to May 27, which concluded the meeting held on May 22 and 23, 2024, at the National Archives building located in the municipality of Bir Khadem in the capital. The statement stressed the “need to continue negotiations within the framework of the Algerian-French joint working group on the issue of archives.”
The Algerian and French sides also agreed to “continue to complete the chronology of events during the nineteenth century, which includes the military, political, economic, social, cultural and humanitarian fields”, as well as to enhance scientific and technical cooperation in the fields of restoration and digitization… and to immortalize places of memory in Algeria and France, and to digitize civil status records and cemeteries of French people in Algeria and cemeteries of Algerians during the nineteenth century in France, and an electronic portal and to organize joint scientific forums”.
With the passage of nearly four months since the last meeting, talk of the joint committee has largely disappeared, but this silence coincided with a serious diplomatic crisis that has hit bilateral relations since the end of last July, for which the French side bears full responsibility, with the decision of the first man in the Elysee Palace, Emmanuel Macron, to support the Moroccan regime’s autonomy plan in the occupied Sahrawi territories, after which the Algerian side decided to recall Ambassador Said Moussa from Paris “with immediate effect”, marking the cessation of diplomatic representation and reducing it to its lowest levels, to the Chargé d’Affaires.
Commenting on this situation, sources familiar with the memory file reported, To “Echorouk”, that the work of the joint committee is suspended until further notice, and the reason is due, according to the same source, to the political and diplomatic considerations that Algerian-French relations are currently going through, which can be described as a rupture.
Since the memory file between Algeria and France is very sensitive, the same source says, the work of the joint committee is essentially linked to the political decision, as it was the one behind the establishment of this committee, and therefore the return of the joint committee to resume its work remains out of the question at the present time, which means that the French president has failed to overcome one of the dilemmas that he has bet on dismantling since his first presidential term in 2017.