The Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA) in Western Sahara, in a statement issued on Monday, February 6, condemned the European Commission’s claim that it was consulted as a stakeholder in an annual report on the implementation of the EU-Morocco Fisheries Agreement and Free Trade Agreement and their impact on occupied Western Sahara. The report was submitted to the European Parliament last month.
The fisheries and free trade agreements between the EU and Morocco which were signed in the previous decades were renewed in 2019. However, the deals were annulled by a European Court in 2021 claiming that the people of Western Sahara have not given their consent to the deal through its UN-recognized Polisario Front. However, the EU has tried to push for the deals claiming that the people have consented as the deal is set to expire later this year. The agreements continues to be operational pending an appeal against the European Court judgement.
CODESA said that by falsely claiming that they had been consulted “the EU executive [had reached] new and unprecedented levels of cynicism, manipulation, and outright lies.”
CODESA also claimed that it was not the only group misrepresented in the report. At least one other group, Western Sahara Not for Sale, was also said to have been consulted without any factual basis. CODESA accused the EU commission of violating its basic norms of consultation by failing to consult the required number of human rights groups, in an attempt to circumvent processes designed to guarantee transparency and accountability.
CODESA claimed that “the EU commission knows very well [about] the blockade in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and that no one has access to the territory. They have been regularly informed about hundreds of human rights violations, crimes against humanity, the situation of Sahrawi political prisoners and the daily collective and individual harassment [by the Moroccan authorities].”
It also noted that the EU commission was aware of the fact that “hundreds of international observers were denied access to the territory by the Moroccan occupying forces including those representing the EU parliament,” and yet the commission chose to bypass consultation with Sahrawi groups. Instead, it chose to rely solely on the organizations working with the occupation authorities, such as Moroccan Council of Human Rights, in order to find ways to implement the trade agreements.
CODESA said that “considering the legal status of of Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory awaiting decolonization process led by the United Nations, it is very disappointing to see the EU commission’s premeditative and continuous attempts to replace the consent of the people.” It questioned the EU’s stated commitments to human rights and UN principles, according to the statement released.
Both the UN and the EU officially do not recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara.
It demanded that EU member states, the EU commission, and the EU parliament “exclude Western Sahara from all its bilateral policies and agreements with the Moroccan authorities.” It also demanded that all European companies cease their activities in the territory, as these operations violated the consent of the people and international laws related to the occupation.
The article has been corrected to incorporate details of the signing of the agreements.