chargement...
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has accepted to examine a new appeal presented on June 23 by the Polisario.
The latter wants the court to annul a decision of the Council of the EU, adopted on February 20, 2020, establishing the position to be adopted on behalf of the European Union within the Association Committee set up by the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, on the one part, the Kingdom of Morocco, on the other part, concerning the exchange of information for the purpose of evaluating the impact of the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters on the amendment of the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement.
In its plea, the Polisario alleges the lack of competence on the part of the Council to adopt the contested decision. «The European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco do not have the competence to conclude an international agreement applicable to Western Sahara instead of the Sahrawi people, represented by the Polisario Front», the document explained.
The Polisario is not at its first attempt
The Polisario also rejected decision n ° 2019/2017, approved on January 28, 2019, by the EU council granting tariff preferences to «Moroccan products» from Western Sahara. The separatist movement alleges that said decision «concludes an international agreement that organizes, without the consent of the Sahrawi people, the exploitation of its resources».
This greenlight from the Court of Justice of the European Union announces the launch of a new legal battle between the lawyers of the Polisario and the European Union. In the past, the CJEU has already demanded, on December 10, 2015, the partial suspension of the agreement, concluded on March 8, 2012, between Morocco and the EU on the grounds that Brussels should have excluded Western Sahara from the liberalization protocol of its trade with the Kingdom in agricultural products, processed agricultural products, fish and fishery products.
The Court ruled on February 18, 2018 on the fishing agreement concluded in 2014 between Rabat and Brussels, following a complaint lodged by the British NGO Western Sahara Campaign. The rulling specified that said agreement «is valid as soon as it is not applicable to Western Sahara and the waters adjacent to it».
And on July 19, 2018, European justice opposed an end of disallowance to another appeal presented by the Polisario canceling the fisheries agreement and the association agreement signed by Morocco and the European Union and specifically on the applicability of said agreements and their protocols to the territory of Western Sahara and to the waters adjacent to it.
CJEU also ruled, on February 8, 2019, «inadmissible» an appeal by the Polisario presented in June 2018 on the start of negotiations between Morocco and the EU on the conclusion of a fisheries agreement integrating Western Sahara.
