On Wednesday, November the 21st, MEPs from the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs voted in favor of granting preferential tariff treatment to products coming from Western Sahara. The vote was criticized by the Polisario. The Polisario is up against MEPs from the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs who voted in favor of granting preferential tariff treatment to products coming from Western Sahara and covered by the association agreement. Mohamed Sidati, the Front's «Minister Delegate to Europe» invited the «European Union, through its parliament, to respect the decisions of its own court through action not only words», reports the Polisario's «official press agency» (SPS). The official refers to the two rulings pronounced by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which excludes products coming from Western Sahara from the trade agreement concluded between Morocco and the European Union. This vote was, however, preceded by an intense lobbying campaign conducted in the recent weeks by the Front at the EP headquarters in Strasbourg. Nevertheless, the results were in favor of Morocco : 44 votes for granting preferential tariff treatment to products coming from Western Sahara and 17 against it. Socialist MEPs and Morocco The groups of MEPs who supported the proposal of the European Commission are European Conservatives and Reformists and the Europe of Nations and Freedom (far right). Last week, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES), invited the «Speaker of the Polisario's parliament». Khatri Addouh, arrived in Strasbourg on and met with members of the European Parliament and its various commissions on the EU-Morocco fishing agreement. His visit aims to «reiterate the position of the Polisario against attempts to circumvent the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union that has ruled on the inapplicability of trade agreements between the EU and Morocco», wrote SPS. Khatri is also held talks with Udo Bullmann, member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Party of European Socialists. He will meet far-left MEPs and environmentalists, known for being close to the Polisario. These visits come as the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development at the European Parliament (EP) adopted, last week in Strasbourg, a favorable opinion for the renewal of the agriculture agreement between Morocco and the European Union (EU). This favorable opinion was voted by the majority of the members of the committee and reflects the position of the political groups represented therein in favor of the adoption by the European Parliament of this agreement which aims at extending trade preferences to agricultural and fishing products from Morocco's southern provinces.
