Toledo (Spain), 3 December 2023 (SPS) - The 47th conference of the European Coordination for Support and Solidarity with the Sahrawi People (EUCOCO) will work to ensure that the United Nations takes effective action to revitalize the role of its mission to organize a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara (MINURSO), said on Saturday in Toledo (Spain) the representative of the Polisario Front for the European Union, Omar Mansour.
"We will work to ensure that the United Nations can take effective action to revitalize the role of its mission in Western Sahara and put pressure on Morocco to bring it to respect the sacred rights of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence," Mansour said in a statement to APS, on the sidelines of the 47th EUCOCO conference, which has been taking place in Toledo since Friday.
In the same context and with regard to the working axes of this conference, the representative of the Polisario Front indicated that it was important to ensure that the previous decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which have consistently ruled in favor of the Polisario Front regarding the issue of illegal exploitation of its natural resources by Morocco, can be renewed and strengthened, despite the pressure exerted by Rabat and some European countries.
In September 2021, the European Union (EU) Court of Justice ruled in favor of the Polisario Front, which maintained that the fishing agreement between the EU and Morocco, illegally including Sahrawi waters, was concluded without the consent of the people of Western Sahara.
The European Council and Commission filed an appeal in December of the same year.
This agreement, with a validity of 4 years and expired last July, is currently the subject of a legal proceeding before the ECJ to avoid its renewal.
For Mansour, the arguments put forward by the European Court of Justice when pronouncing its verdict in 2021 suggest that the ECJ will maintain its previous decisions relating to the respect of the right of the Sahrawi people to their natural resources, in order to respect the application of the right to permanent sovereignty of peoples over their resources.
Based on this respect for judicial decisions, the Sahrawi diplomat recalled that the Polisario Front was "willing to cooperate fully with the EU and all companies interested in the question of Sahrawi resources, within the framework of joint work capable of allowing exploitation based on the need for respect for international law."