The EU-Morocco Trade Agreement Under Scrutiny

A conference on the impact of the EU-Morocco trade agreement on the future of the UN-led peace process in Western Sahara is being held today, Wednesday, at the European Parliament in Brussels, according to the European Parliament’s “Friends of the Sahrawi People” group, which is organizing the event in cooperation with the European Coordination Conference of Spport to the Sahrawi People (EUCOCO).

This conference aims to analyse the impact of this agreement, signed in flagrant violation of European Court of Justice rulings and international law, on the UN-led peace process in Western Sahara.

In two rulings issued by the European Court of Justice on October 4, 2024, the Court affirmed that Western Sahara is a distinct and separate territory from Morocco, and that any agreement signed between the European Union and Morocco cannot be implemented without the prior consent of the Sahrawi people.

These rulings come in the context of a series of previous resolutions (2016, 2018, and 2021) reiterating the European Union’s obligation to respect the principle of self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter.

The discussion will be moderated by MEP Andreas Schieder, President of the “Friends of the Sahrawi People” Group, with the participation of MEPs Pernardo Barrena and Ana Miranda Paz, along with Pierre Galand, President of the European Coordination of Solidarity with the Sahrawi People, and Abi Bouchraya Bachir, Special Advisor to the Sahrawi President on Natural Resources and Legal Affairs.

Pierre Galand is expected to confirm the importance of preserving the international legal framework for the decolonisation process in Western Sahara and preventing any attempt to legitimise the annexation of the territory. He will also address Security Council Resolution 2797, which extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), reaffirming the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.

Abi Bouchraya will also present the Polisario Front’s strategy, as the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, to challenge the agreement before the European courts. He announced that a new lawsuit will be filed with the General Court of the European Union before the end of the year.

Alongside this conference, a protest will be held in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels to condemn the Commission’s attempts to circumvent the rulings of the European Court of Justice regarding Western Sahara.

The Sahrawi human rights organisation “Al-Ghad” called on Sahrawis in Europe to participate widely in the protest to express their “categorical rejection of any attempt by the European Commission to override the European law or circumvent the clear decisions of the European Court of Justice.”