Algeria has reacted with vigor and firmness against the interference of the European Union in the diplomatic tensions which mark relations between Algeria and Spain today. Algeria defends a sovereign decision, taken for perfectly legitimate reasons, and denounces a vain and malicious attempt to exert pressure.
In a press release, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad recalled that the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborliness between Algeria and Spain is a bilateral agreement, the suspension of which does not affect Algeria’s commitments to the EU, either directly or indirectly. He also strongly and vigorously denounced the European insinuations on the supply of Algerian gas, which he describes as “fanciful and malicious”.
“The haste and bias of these statements highlight the inappropriateness of their content, as it concerns a political disagreement with a European country of a bilateral nature having no impact on Algeria’s commitments to the EU. towards the EU and consequently in no way requiring the triggering of any European consultation for the purposes of a collective reaction”, notes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad. And to recall that “the decision to suspend the Algerian-Spanish Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation responds to legitimate considerations, which are essentially due to the fact that the partner has released itself from obligations and values essential enshrined in this Treaty, thus taking on the responsibility of emptying this legal instrument of its substance and calling into question its relevance in the relations between the two parties to the said treaty”. “In view of this observation, the Algerian Government has taken care to publicly specify the scope of the precautionary measure that it has been led to take to preserve the supreme interests, of a moral and strategic order, of the country in the face of infringing acts to the object and purpose of the Treaty”, underlines the department of Ramtane Lamamra.
A treaty emptied of its content
It would be useful to recall in this context that the treaty of friendship and good neighborliness signed between Algeria and Spain in 2002, goes beyond the simple commercial framework, and was to set up a global framework of cooperation that concerns the coordination between the two countries on diplomatic, military, counter-terrorism and cooperation issues in the fields of investment, education and the media. More importantly, this treaty of friendship is based primarily on respect for international legality. Commitment on which the Sanchez Government sat in view of its sudden and surprising reversal on the question of Western Sahara in contradiction with respect for international law.
“Obviously, the alleged suspension of trade and investment relations with Spain, set out in the said official European declarations, is hastily invoked therein without any foundation, and the European Community authorities have no basis in this case. to establish their jurisdiction in the matter,” the statement noted. And to add that “this unfortunate intrusion is the act of a personality clearly committed to the amplification of the theses of his national diplomacy to the detriment of the preservation of the well-understood interests of the EU within which Algeria is honored to have many reliable and responsible friends and partners”. And to continue:
“In any event, Algeria, which has always kept its commitments within the framework of its Association Agreement with the EU, is legitimately committed to promoting all the relevant aspects of this framework, in transparency, despite the asymmetrical nature of the trade structure between the two parties and the imbalances preventing the development of a mutually beneficial economic partnership,” reassures the ministry. And to add: “Algeria also rejects, as fanciful and malicious, the insinuations and questions relating to the question of the supply of gas to Spain, even though the President of the Republic himself had to solemnly affirm the determination of the Algerian party to fulfill its related contractual obligations”.
And to conclude: “Moreover, this question which concerns companies of the two countries on a strictly commercial basis does not arise in the context of energy relations with the other purchasers of Algerian gas in the Euro-Mediterranean area who fulfill of their contractual obligations with the same good faith as Algeria”. Because if Algeria reaffirms its commitments as a reliable partner and supplier of natural gas to the European market, it recalls that this reliability and respect for commitments must be reciprocal in all “transparency and good faith”.
As a reminder, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, and the Executive Vice-President in charge of EU trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, have committed an attempt to intimidation Algeria. They said after a meeting in Brussels with Spanish Foreign Minister Manuel Albares that the Commission is assessing “the implications of Algeria’s actions”, including the instruction given to financial institutions “to stop transactions between both countries, which appears to be in breach of the EU-Algeria Association Agreement, particularly in the area of trade and investment”.
