EU High Representative Reaffirms ‘Immense Value’ of Strategic Partnership With Morocco

The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, on Monday reaffirmed the “immense value” that the EU places on its strategic partnership with Morocco.

“The 27 wish to deepen the partnership between Morocco and the EU, which is a long-range, long-term, very dense and in-depth partnership’, said the EU High Representative, presenting the conclusions of the EU Foreign Affairs Council held on Monday in Luxembourg at a press conference.

The 27 also expressed, through Borrell, their commitment to ‘consolidating’ and ‘defending’ the partnership in all areas. In his statement, Borrell promised that the Partnership will experience positive developments in the up-coming months.

“We have established friendly relations and multi-faceted cooperation with Morocco, and we wish to continue and strengthen it over the coming months”, he said, adding that the EU foreign affairs ministers had taken note of the rulings of the European Court of Justice on the EU-Morocco fisheries and agriculture agreements.

In this respect, the EU Head of Diplomacy reiterated the content of the joint statement with the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, which reaffirmed the European bloc’s commitment to further preserve and strengthen close relations with Morocco in all areas, in accordance with the principle of “pacta sunt servanda”.
“Working closely with Morocco, the EU wishes to strengthen these relations and preserve this partnership in all areas”, he concluded.

This unanimous stance in support of Morocco comes just after Algeria’s shenanigans last weekend, when it summoned the ambassadors in Algiers of the 12 countries that had expressed their support for Morocco in the immediate aftermath of the EU Court of Justice rulings. It appears to be a scathing response from the EU to Algeria.

Monday’s statement by the EU High Representative confirms the positive trend and strategic nature of the joint statement by the president of the Commission, Von Der Leyen, and the High Representative on 4 October.

Finally, through these unanimous statements by the Member States, the EU is sending a clear political message and responding with a single voice to Algeria’s unacceptable attempts to exert pressure and interference on the Member States on an internal issue for the EU and its partnership with the Kingdom.