Spanish MEP Florent Marcellesi on Monday appealed to Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Maria Dastis Quecedo on how his country intends to comply with the judgment of the European Court of Justice (CJEU)
Spanish MEP Florent Marcellesi on Monday appealed to Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Maria Dastis Quecedo on how his country intends to comply with the judgment of the European Court of Justice (CJEU), which excludes Western Sahara from the Implementation of EU-Morocco Association and Liberalization Agreements after the Commission has requested the agreement of the EU Member States to renegotiate these agreements.
According to Florent Marcellesi, the “main concern” concerns the need to clarify the position of the European Commission and the Spanish government to see if they intend to take up the notion underlined in the judgment of the CJEU on the consent of the Sahara people And not the population of Western Sahara.
For this MEP, the difference between the people of Western Sahara and the population of Western Sahara, constituted for a huge majority of Moroccan settlers incited to settle in the occupied territories, “will be the central focus of this renegotiation of the association agreements and Liberalization with Morocco “.
“We want to know whether the Commission intends to ask for the agreement of the people or the people of Western Sahara.” At different meetings, the Commission has not been clear on this point. As the ECJ’s judgment is very clear on this point: we must ask the opinion and consent of the people of Western Sahara, “he told the APS.
Florent Marcellesi underlined the need to enter into negotiations with the Polisario Front because it alone can give the consent of the Saharawi people to the exploitation of its resources.
“If we want to obtain the consent of the people of Western Sahara, we need to have the Polisario Front, recognized both by the CJEU and the UN as the legitimate representative of the Saharawi people, so it would be logical and even legal and normal , Both at the legal and political level, to see the Polisario Front participate in the renegotiation to know if there is consent of the people of the Western Sahara, “he pleaded.
The exclusion of the Polisario Front from the renegotiation of the agreements with Morocco, he continued, risks “posing a big political and legal problem to the EU” which “will break its teeth again, if the Front Polisario decides to bring the case to justice “.
For this MEP, there is no doubt, the Polisario Front “will win again because the jurisprudence is very clear, international laws are also clear.” “We expected mainly transparency,” he said, stressing that Spanish civil society and MEPs in particular would like to “know the position of Spain on this subject.”
Last Friday, the Observatory for Natural Resources in Western Sahara (WSRW) revealed that the European Commission has sought the approval of the EU member states to dismiss the judgment of the EU Court of Justice by negotiating a new agreement With Morocco for trade with occupied Western Sahara.
“We do not have access at this time to this draft (the Commission’s request to obtain a negotiating mandate with Morocco) .That is why we demand transparency,” he said.
Florent Marcellesi launched an appeal to the EU member states, in particular Spain, to make this draft public, in order to “know exactly how it is being built and whether to make amendments as a State Member and request its rewriting if necessary “.
“It is a matter of transparency, and we do not want the Commission and the Council to play behind the scenes,” he added, stressing that his concern, as a member of Parliament, Is to “know the position that the European Council adopts Spain, which has a historical responsibility in the conflict in Western Sahara”.
For this, the MEP sent a letter to the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs to ask for clarification on this subject, notably to know if Spain counts, before going to the European Council, “to obtain the support of its congress” .
In this regard, he considered it “primordial” to have a debate in Spain to know what the Spanish political majority thinks on this subject. “Many autonomous regional committees have voted resolutions in which they emphasize that Spain and its government must respect the judgment of the CJEU on Western Sahara,” he said.
