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EU-Morocco: Sidati denounces European Parliament’s adoption of air agreement covering Western Sahara

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Brussels (Belgium) , Oct 25, 2017 (SPS) -  The Sahrawi minister delegate for Europe Mohamed Sidati denounced Tuesday, the adoption by the European Parliament, which met in a plenary session in Strasbourg, of the European Union-Morocco air agreement  covering Western Sahara, adding that this new approach of the European Union “strengthens the illegal occupation” of Western Sahara by Morocco.
 
The adoption of the Euro-Mediterranean EU-Morocco agreement on air transport “strengthens illegal occupation, violates the international rights of the Sahrawi people and undermines the political process led under the aegis of the United Nations,” he wrote in a communiqué.
 
According to Sidati, “this vote is another example of the European legislators’ attempts to bypass the European Union law for relations with Morocco,” recalling, in this regard, that Morocco has no sovereignty on the Western Sahara territory.
 
For the Sahrawi minister, this agreement “violates the European right,” stressing that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) clearly indicates in its decision made on 21 December 2016 that the EU cannot conclude agreements with Morocco which include the “separated and distinct” territory of Western Sahara.
 
“Such agreement require in international law, the consent of the Sahrawi people,” he insisted, regretting that the EU did not seek the consent of the Frente POLISARIO, legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people. SPS
 
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