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GUE/NGL urges EU foreign ministers not to appeal ECJ ruling on EU-Morocco trade agreement

Date

14 Dec 2015

Sections

Agriculture & Food
Global Europe
Med & South
Trade & Society

GUE/NGL MEPs are today urgently calling on EU Foreign Affairs Ministers not to appeal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding last Thursday's ruling on the EU-Morocco trade agreement on agricultural and fisheries products.

The agreement was deemed invalid last week by the ECJ because it includes the Moroccan-occupied territories of Western Sahara. The GUE/NGL demands that the ECJ ruling is applied immediately, because the trade agreement is, in effect, illegal.

The GUE/NGL had already strongly opposed this agreement in February 2012 when it was being negotiated. At the time, the group called on the Western Sahara to be explicitly excluded from any agreement concluded between the EU and Morocco, and that the EU should open the door for separate agreements with the Sahrawi people through their internationally-recognised legitimate representative Frente Polisario.

After its entry into force, the agreement has become an instrument for Morocco's plundering of Western Sahara resources with the complicity of foreign investors, including large European firms.

The GUE/NGL calls on the EU to urgently implement the ECJ ruling and to revise existing trade agreements between the EU and Morocco in order to respect international law regarding the exploitation of the natural resources of Western Sahara.

It considers that this is just another case of double standards by the EU, which excludes from its trade agreements products from the Israeli Occupied Territories of Palestine but not those from Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.

 

GUE/NGL Press Contact:

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20

Nikki Sullings + 32 483 03 55 75

European United Left / Nordic Green Left

European Parliamentary Group

www.guengl.eu

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