Madrid, November 18, 2018 (SPS) - The European Coordinating Conference of Support to the Sahrawi People (EUCOCO) kicked off Friday in Madrid, in Spain, with the participation of about 400 personalities coming from the five continents, including parliamentarians and government’s representatives.
During the opening ceremony, the international delegations participating in this major solidarity event expressed their determination to continue supporting the decolonization process in Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony.
Several official and popular delegations committed to supporting the Sahrawi people’s fair struggle as well as developing and modernizing its working methods.
President of the European Coordinating Conference of Support to the Sahrawi People (EUCOCO) Pierre Galand pointed out that the Europeans should respect the Sahrawi people’s right to enjoy their natural resources and renounce the maneuvers to which resorted the European Commission with the Moroccan occupier to shirk the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), made in February 2018, and which voids any commercial agreement concluded with Morocco that could include the territorial waters and resources coming from occupied Western Sahara.
For her part, Algeria’s ambassador to Spain Taous Froukhi said that the importance of organizing a symposium in Madrid stems from the Spanish people’s commitment towards the Sahrawi people.
“This event fuels our efforts to put an end to this occupation which harms our African continent since 1975 and which affects the inter-African cooperation and even the coordination between Europe and Africa,” said the diplomat.
Head of foreign affairs committee of the Algerian Parliament Abdelhamid Si Afif welcomed the creation of an international parliamentary network of support for the Sahrawi people’s struggle, which was approved in the coordination’s last seminar and which was created thanks to the efforts of the parliamentarians.
Si Afif expressed his satisfaction with the positive results obtained by the international parliamentary network of support for the Sahrawi People’s struggle, underlining the Algerian Parliament’s determination to organize an international colloquium for the parliamentarians in solidarity with the Sahrawi people in the beginning of next year.
For her part, Euro-MP Paloma Lopez argued against the fact that the European Commission and Morocco tried to shirk CJEU’s decision, pointing out the failure of the Moroccan lobby in promoting the thesis of the Moroccan occupation in the European Parliament.
The European deputies in favor of the Sahrawi people organized a certain number of activities as part of the Sahrawi struggle for justice. Thanks to these efforts, the Sahrawi issue has become more present with the European legislature, according to her. (SPS)
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