Opinion

Kicking our asses

photo_camera Court of Justice of the EU

I apologise in advance because I suppose it might be politically incorrect to say that "we were few and far between and grandma gave birth to us", or that we are in a circus that is "growing dwarfs" because I don't want to offend anyone. But the reality is that the fates seem to be conspiring to create problems in our always complicated relations with Morocco.

First there was the dispute over the visit to Spain of the president of the self-styled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, who was ill with coronavirus and who was naïve enough on our part not to warn Rabat in advance and then assume that it would not find out. In the end it didn't matter because Rabat would have been looking for another excuse to put pressure on us, as it had previously done with Germany, to change our position on Western Sahara, taking advantage of the step taken by Trump (and not reversed by Biden) to recognise its sovereignty over the territory. Before making a move, Rabat should be aware of what Spain can and cannot do. It would avoid missteps and avoid unpleasantness.

To appease Mohammed VI, Pedro Sánchez offered him the head of Foreign Minister Arantxa González Laya on a plate, although we should not fool ourselves because the only thing that really appeased the Moroccan was Algeria's severing of diplomatic relations and the impossibility of being at odds with its two neighbours to the north and east at the same time. In the end, Algeria not only broke off diplomatic relations with Rabat, but also closed its airspace to Moroccan flights, and to hurt Morocco it is threatening to stop sending gas to us via the Maghreb-Europe pipeline. Algeria has decided to raise the level of its confrontation with Morocco while also clashing with France, and in doing so is showing a nervousness probably due to its many internal problems, which are known to be masked by the spectre of an external enemy.

And now a new front - which also theoretically harms us - is opening up with the European General Court's decision to annul the EU-Morocco Fisheries and Trade Agreements on the grounds that they cover products from Western Sahara over which the international community does not recognise Moroccan sovereignty. In order not to create legal uncertainty, the Court is giving two months before giving effect to this ruling, which is politically charged and constitutes an unquestionable victory for the Polisario Front. An appeal can be lodged with the Court of Justice of the EU, which has already ruled on the matter when, after annulling in 2015 a trade agreement signed in 2012, it rectified in 2016 to allow its application, but made it clear that Morocco could not export products of Sahrawi origin as its own. Given the importance of trade relations between the EU and Morocco (€35 billion with a surplus of €5,000 million for Europe), it is foreseeable that the Council will appeal and that when the appeal is admitted for processing, the CJEU itself will suspend the application of this ruling as a precautionary measure until it issues a final ruling... which could take the couple of years that remain in force for both agreements.

In theory, more in theory than in practice, the annulment of the fishing agreement for which Rabat receives 50 million euros annually is supposed to affect mainly Spain because 93 of the 128 vessels authorised to fish in Moroccan and Saharan waters are Spanish. 47 are Andalusian (Barbate, Tarifa, Conil and Algeciras), 38 from the Canary Islands and 7 from Galicia. But the reality is that only 22 Spanish vessels fish in Saharan waters, dedicated to bottom trawling and artisanal fishing, catching sablefish, horse mackerel, parco and voracious, as we do not have licences for purse seine fishing, bottom longlining and pole-and-line tuna fishing, which is what German and Baltic vessels do in Saharan waters. And if we go to the 2019 trade agreement, also now annulled, the reality is that our agricultural sector has welcomed the ruling with undisguised satisfaction as it does not consider it a good agreement because it does not protect it from Moroccan competition in fruit and vegetables that are harvested at lower costs at the same time as ours.

Our relationship with Morocco is very important because it covers very sensitive issues such as anti-terrorist cooperation, illegal immigration, trade, investment, drug smuggling, disagreements over Ceuta and Melilla and the Sahara, Operation Crossing the Strait, the delimitation of waters in both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Operation Crossing the Strait, the delimitation of waters in both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean... and many other delicate issues that require a tempered spirit and that make it advisable to avoid these shocks, even if they are not always to be blamed on us. Because the unquestionable reality is that it is in the interest of both countries to put aside our differences, work on what unites us and look to the future together because we will share it, whether we like it or not. And for that very reason, we had better like it.

Jorge Dezcallar Ambassador of Spain