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The European Parliament’s seat in Strasbourg is the favorite destination for Morocco and the Polisario’s representatives. Both delegations are mandated to lobby MEPs. The draft fisheries agreement signed by the Kingdom and the European Commission was at the heart of these two visits.
And while Rabat, which is backed by the European Commission and EU countries, lobbies for the adoption of the treaty signed in June, the Front is mobilizing its lobbyists for a different objective. The Polisario is basing its arguments on the 2016 and 2017 rulings issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and which indicate that products coming from Western Sahara must be excluded from the agreements concluded between Morocco and the European Union.
The Kingdom is relying on Saharawi lobbyists
To secure the approval of the European Parliament, Morocco is relying on Saharawi lobbyists. Indeed, the delegation sent this week to Strasbourg is led by National Rally of Independents party politician who heads the Sahara office of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM), Mohamed Lamine Hormatallah.
Two civil society actors from the southern provinces are accompanied Hormatallah to France namely, Hammada Lbouihi, the president of the Sahrawi Human Rights League and Amina Laghzal from the South Center for Studies and Research. The three Moroccans have held meetings with MEPs and Have invited them to visit the Sahara.
The Moroccan delegation was supported by the presence, on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of October in Strasbourg, of members of the Moroccan-European Union Joint Parliamentary Committee.
On the other hand, the delegation sent by the Polisario to the European Parliament also held talks with MEPs, including those belonging to the «EU Parliament intergroup for Western Sahara», created in 2015.
For the record, on November the 5th, the International Trade Commission will take a look at the report conducted by the EU delegation that visited Dakhla and Laayoune in September. The mission was sent to examine the benefits the fisheries agreement on Sahrawis.
