Morocco has warned that if the EU does not ensure the ”necessary conditions to better guarantee agreements”, and especially a free trade accord hanging in the balance, it will not be able to continue reining in migrant flows towards Europe.
The Moroccan agriculture and fisheries ministry has urged Brussels in a statement to ignore attempts to derail the agreement, saying that ”every obstacle represents a direct threat to thousands of jobs in a particularly sensitive sector, as well as a risk of migration flows beginning again that Morocco has put forth considerable effort to contain”.
Signed in 2012, the reciprocal free trade agreements were suspended in 2015 by an EU court after an appeal by the Polisario, which protested the inclusion of the disputed Western Sahara in the agreement. The appeal was rejected in recent months but the agreement has not yet been restored.
”The lack of sincere commitment by the EU will force Morocco to make a final decision,” Morocco warned. ”Either we persevere with the agreement so tenaciously sought and patiently built, or we decide to close it with no possibility to go backwards and concentrate on building new relations and trade circuits.”
ANSA
