EU top court upholds cancellation of EU-Morocco trade deals

The European Court of Justice ruled Friday that fishing and farming deals struck between the EU and Morocco in 2019 were invalid due to the lack of the consent of the people of the Western Sahara.

The disputed territory, a desert tract on the Atlantic Ocean annexed by Morocco in 1975 following Spain’s withdrawal, did not consent to a deal that directly implicated it, in breach of the “principles of the right to self-determination and the relative effect of treaties,” the court said.

The final decision follows several appeals from the European Commission and is a major win for the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement, whose legal entitlement to challenge the trade deals was recognised by the Luxembourg-based court.

A previous 2021 ruling by the General Court struck down the EU’s trade and fisheries deals with Morocco. The fisheries agreement, which permitted European vessels to fish in Moroccan and Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara waters, remained in place until its expiration in July 2023 to avoid economic repercussions.

The ECJ said that while the EU’s executive and diplomatic arms had carried out consultations, that “process did not concern the people of Western Sahara but the inhabitants who are currently present in that territory, irrespective of whether or not they belong to the people of Western Sahara.”

“As a significant proportion of that people now lives outside that territory, that consultation process was not such as to establish such consent on the part of that people,” it added.

Western nations, including Spain and France, have recently recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, which is considered by the UN to be a “non-self-governing territory.”

The Polisario Front has used the high-profile case to push forward its independence claims.

Responding to the ruling on Friday, a spokesperson for the EU executive said: “The EU reiterates the great importance that it attaches to its strategic partnership with Morocco, which is long-standing, vast and profound.”

The EU executive also took note of a separate decision on Friday requiring some fruit and vegetable products from the Western Sahara to be labelled as coming from the territory.

“The European Commission is analysing at the moment the rulings in detail,” the spokesperson added, noting that the Court grants 12 months before executing the verdict to avoid “serious negative consequences for the external action of the Union”.