Paris – The EU is called to play a constructive role to encourage Maghreb integration which hampers the settlement of the Sahara issue and the closing of the Moroccan-Algerian borders, former Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio underlined.
“We must get rid of the idea that Europe, supposedly on the wane, cannot be an interlocutor and a constructive partner to promote regional prosperity” in the Maghreb all the more so because the Union remains its main commercial partner, Palacio told French paper “Le Figaro” on Wednesday.
Palacio, also former vice president of the World Bank, called for a new commitment by the EU with its neighbors south and east of the Mediterranean, deploring the cost of the non-Maghreb for the economies of the region which are landlocked mostly for political reasons.
She cited the Sahara conflict which resulted in closing the Moroccan-Algerian borders, causing both parties to lose 1 to 2 points yearly of their GDP.
She deemed that the success of a renewed partnership by the EU with the Maghreb involves the implementation of vital structural reforms in the region.
These countries should enhance their institutional framework and reinforce rules and regulations to guarantee the efficiency of financial institutions and the investors’ legal security, a crucial framework to draw large businesses, she concluded.
