At the end of the meeting of foreign ministers of the European Union that was held on Thursday in Brussels, Jose Manuel Albares He also participated in the European Union-Morocco Association Council and praised the relationship with Morocco in front of his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita.
For his part, he defended that “it marks three decades of a solid and diversified institutional partnership, in which Morocco has always been at the forefront of the EU’s relations with its Mediterranean neighborhood.”
This meeting is of particular importance for Rabat, both on a symbolic, political and economic level, because it takes place on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Morocco-EU Association Agreement at a time when attempts are being made to impose the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
In fact, the Moroccan official press sees the meeting in Brussels as a victory because it assures that the EU has adopted a common position regarding the autonomy plan for Western Sahara. “Although numerous European Union countries had already expressed clear support for the Moroccan identity of the Sahara and the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco, this new position of the EU marks a fundamental advance,” reports the national news agency.
For its part, the magazine As isone of the freest in Morocco, focuses attention on the High Representative of the EU, Kaja Kallawhen he pronounced the phrase that Rabat had been waiting for for months: “This meeting also gives me the opportunity to formally present the new EU position on the Sahara. This change reflects the UN Security Council resolution of last October.”
According to this publication, it is “a moderate announcement, in diplomatic language. But it sounds like a revolution for a bloc that has long hidden behind a façade of neutrality on this issue.”
However, in accordance with international law, trade agreements between Europe and the North African country are paralyzed by three rulings from the Court of Justice of the European Union of October 4, 2024, which do not allow Morocco to market products from Western Sahara without asking consent from its population and its legal representative, the Polisario Front.
Spain’s support for the royal vision
The Spanish minister highlighted during the meeting that “Morocco is the second client outside the European Union with whom we also cooperate in the fight against mafias that traffic in human beings.”
A cooperation that, Albares stressed, “in the Spanish case allows us to have the lowest entry numbers of irregular migrants of all routes in the European Union. A country with which we have a lot to share, a lot to dialogue and a joint work that Spain knows first-hand and which is very successful.”
On the other side of the Strait it is considered that this “Morocco-EU political dialogue illustrated the relevance of the strategic vision of His Majesty the King [Mohamed VI] and Morocco’s position as a provider of peace, stability and development built in its regional spaces.”
The highest representative of diplomacy in the neighboring country reiterated to his European counterparts the real vision, to move from the logic of the neighbor to that of the ally. Morocco, he stated, offers the EU “a concrete strategic proposal: stability, complementarity, competitiveness, growth, connectivity and a bridge to the southern Mediterranean and Africa.”
Sweden surrenders
The last European country to officially recognize the Moroccan autonomy plan, after Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and Poland, was Sweden, this January 19.
Sweden “supports the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco, in light of Security Council resolution 2797”, as a “credible basis” for negotiations with a view to reaching a definitive solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, after the telephone conversation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maria Malmer Stenergardincluding Nasser Bourita.
A great victory for Morocco, which has been fighting for more than a decade against the authorities of the Nordic country for its position openly inclined to respect the human rights of the Sahrawi people.
One of the most controversial moments occurred in 2015, when the first Ikea store was fully installed in Casablanca, but did not receive opening authorization from the Rabat Executive for months because the Swedish Government’s project was to recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
At that time, a demonstration was called in front of the Swedish embassy in Rabat, one of the largest in 2015. 30,000 people gathered, arriving in buses from all over the country with proclamations in favor of the king and the “Moroccan Sahara.”
The political dimension against Sweden came to light when the Government spokesperson and Minister of Communication, Mustapha El Khalfiannounced a boycott campaign against Swedish companies in response to the “hostile stance of Sweden” and “in reciprocity” to the boycott suffered by Moroccan interests in that country.
Finally, four months later, in Stockholm the Foreign Policy regarding the Sahara was reviewed, which they no longer recognized as an independent country and after a decade they supported the Moroccan autonomy plan.