EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, visited Morocco to discuss EU-Morocco relations following the European Court of Justice's ruling excluding the Sahara from bilateral agreements. Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita urged the EU to take concrete actions to uphold their partnership, emphasizing Morocco's stance on national unity and territorial integrity. EU commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement Oliver Varhelyi is visiting Morocco. The visit comes almost two months after the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruled on October 4 to exclude the Sahara from the Kingdom's fisheries and agricultural agreements with the EU. Varhelyi began his program in Rabat on Monday, November 25, with talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. «On this occasion, the Ministre urged the EU to fully assume its responsibilities with regard to the partnership with Morocco», says Moroccan diplomacy on X. Bourita insisted that EU member states must affirm their commitment to the partnership with Morocco through actions, not words. The head of diplomacy demanded that the European side clearly express the measures and policies it intends to take to meet these challenges. The CJEU has given the EU 12 months to comply with its rulings The ball is now in Europe's court to come up with solutions, as time is running out. Indeed, the CJEU has given the European Union one year to comply with its rulings of October 4. After two months, the European Commission is «still analyzing» these rulings, a senior European Commission official told a meeting of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee last week. This announcement follows the communiqués issued by the EC, the meeting of foreign ministers held in Luxembourg on October 14, and the European Council meeting held in Brussels on October 17 and 18. At this meeting, the Twenty-Seven stressed that they had «taken note of the recent rulings of the CJEU and specified that the 'European Council and the Council will continue to determine foreign policy in accordance with the Treaties'». Since then, no concrete action has been taken, apart from statements by senior European officials welcoming the partnership with the kingdom. Oliver Varhelyi is one of them. «Firm EU commitment to our partnership with Morocco. An indispensable partner and pillar of prosperity, stability and security.», he wrote on his social media after his talks with Nasser Bourita. As a reminder, in his speech on November 6 to mark the 49th anniversary of the Green March, King Mohammed VI specified that «Morocco's partnerships and legal commitments will never be to the detriment of its national unity and territorial integrity».
