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European Parliament: Effects of EU-Morocco agreement on conflict settlement in Western Sahara underlined

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Brussels, November 23, 2018 (SPS) - The European Parliament hosted a conference on the effects of EU-Morocco agreement on the United Nations settlement process of the conflict in Western Sahara, in which the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Parliament (CJEU) and the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council were underlined.
The participants in this conference, organized Thursday at the headquarters of the European Parliament, highlighted CJEU’s decisions affirming that Morocco and Western Sahara are two separate territories and that any agreement between EU and Morocco involving Western Sahara and its natural resources, without the Sahrawi people’s consent, is null and void and constitutes a blatant violation of the international law.”
In this regard, the participants broached the European Commission’s attempts to circumvent these decisions, notably by designating some Moroccan associations as “representatives of the Sahrawi people,” which is inconsistent with CJEU’s decisions, affirming that “any agreement involving Western Sahara must obtain the consent of the Sahrawi people and their legitimate and only representative, the Polisario Front,” in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly of 1979 and 1980.
They also examined the “legal status” of Western Sahara and UN relevant decision, including the last decision of the Security Council 2440 which reiterates “the support to the approaches of UN envoy Horst Kohler, in order to reach a peaceful solution to Western Sahara’s conflict, enabling the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination, in accordance with UN principles and objectives.”
This conference, which is led by the Polisario Front’s lawyer Gilles Devers, vice-president of the European parliament and member of trade commission, the head of group for peace in Western Sahara at the European Parliament as well as Sahrawi activist Mahfoud Bechraya, takes place at a moment when the European companies attend a major debate on the effects of the agreements concluded between Morocco and the Polisario Front on the settlement process, backed by UN in Western Sahara. (SPS)
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