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EU/Morocco
By Lénaïc Vaudin d’Imécourt
It was a divided European Parliament that adopted, on 16 February, an updated free trade deal between the EU and Morocco on agricultural and fisheries products. The controversial agreement was finally approved by a majority of MEPs through a joint motion for a resolution drafted by the European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialist and Democrats (S&D), the Liberals (ALDE) and the Conservatives (ECR). But even within said political groups, not all MEPs were in agreement. The deal will immediately liberalise 45% of EU exports to and 55% of EU imports from Morocco by value. Within ten years, most fruits and vegetables as well as EU dairy products could be completely liberalised, leading to a 70% share of liberalised EU exports. But certain exemptions exist in the agreement on “sensitive EU products,” such as tomatoes, garlic and cucumbers, which prevent them from being completely liberalised under the proposal as it sets out tariff quotas on those goods. The renewed deal was approved after the Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture (AGRI) first rejected it back in July 2011.
Spanish concerns
These exemptions are not enough to ease the concerns of Spanish NGOs and MEPs. According to COAG, a Spanish agricultural NGO, “the renewal of the agreement would be a hard blow to the economy and employment”. Spain is one of the leading exporters of fruits and vegetables (the country has over 250,000 agricultural producers). Unemployment in Spain rose to 22.85% in 2011, but this rate is even higher in horticultural regions like Andalusia (31.23%), Murcia (26.77%) and the Canaries (30.93%). Their position is backed by Copa-Cogeca, which represents European farmers and their cooperatives. It believes that the deal will have a “disastrous impact on employment in EU rural areas where often there is no alternative source of employment,” as it will “dramatically increase the positive trade balance already in Morocco’s favour”. Ahead of the vote, Pekka Pesonen, Copa-Cogeca’s secretary-general, urged EPP Chair Joseph Daul to reconsider his position as the agreement “will be extremely prejudicial to producers of tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, garlic, strawberries and citrus fruits in the EU”. Spanish MEPs have also voiced their concerns over the agreement. During parliamentary debates, on 14 February, Gabriel Mato Adover (EPP, Spain) stated that the deal “will punish thousands of farmers in Spain”. He argued that the deal does not respect customs duties, allows dumping, makes local fruit and vegetable producers in Spain disappear and “leads to fraud”.
Western Sahara
The long-standing controversy surrounding the administration of the Western Sahara region by Morocco has also been raised by several MEPs, including José Bové (Greens-EFA, France), who was nominated rapporteur on the agreement in 2010. According to a joint resolution by the Greens and GUE-NGL groups – which was rejected by the majority of MEPs – “Morocco is illegally occupying the territory of Western Sahara” and “Western Sahara cannot be included in any agreement that the EU concludes with the Kingdom of Morocco”. In Bové’s initial draft, which called for Parliament to reject the proposal, it was noted that a number of countries, including the US, had signed free trade agreements with Morocco from which the Western Sahara was expressly excluded. But “as the Commission and Parliament’s legal services hold diverging views on this issue, the rapporteur feels unable to guarantee that this free trade agreement will comply with the international treaties binding the European Union and all its member states”.
Positive signal
MEPs in favour of the agreement stressed that the approval of the deal sends a positive signal to countries in the region. “It represents an open door towards the neighbouring countries, which have been through the Arab spring revolution,” Cristiana Muscardini (EPP, Italy) said in a statement. Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos told MEPs that “this accord is a balanced one,” while Nicolai Wammen, Denmark’s minister for European affairs, said that “the enactment of this accord shows that the EU keeps its word”.
