ANSAmed | 1 March 2013

EU-Morocco: Barroso launches talks for free trade agreement

PE Liberals pleased; Polisario Front submits appeal to EU court

BRUSSELS, MARCH 1 — European Commission president Jose’ Manuel Barroso was in Rabat on Friday to launch talks for an EU-Morocco free trade agreement. The decision may end up as a major headache for Brussels, however, as the issue of relations with Morocco is a highly sensitive one within some Member States and the European Parliament itself, where the rights of the Saharawi people of the Western Sahara are defended.

While talks move forward for a new EU-Morocco fisheries agreement, the Polisario Front — which fights for the independence of the Western Sahara — has submitted a request to the European Court of Justice for the annulment of all trade agreements between the EU and Morocco on agricultural and fisheries products.

Italian European Parliament Member Cristiana Muscardini (FLI) has said she is pleased that talks have begun for a free trade agreement. She called the agreement ’’a clear opportunity for the EU to foster development in the area, to step up relations with the African continent and to support SMEs, which will find a productive and commercial outlet in Europe’’.

The same position was expressed by her French counterpart Marielle De Sarnez (ALDE), who called the latest talks ’’highly symbolic’’. The EU is at present Morocco’s largest trade partner, with trade volume at 20.6 billion euros in 2011, accounting for about 50% of Morocco’s overall trade. (ANSAmed).