Three years ago, Morocco made a bid to join ECOWAS and since then the union has been out of sight. The West African bloc continues to ignore the Kingdom's bid. As for Morocco, it seems that the enthusiasm of the first months has given way to a form of resignation. On February 24, 2017, Morocco officially submitted a bid to join the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). «This request is submitted in accordance with the provisions of the ECOWAS Founding Treaty, and in full satisfaction of its membership criteria», the Foreign Ministry said in a statement relayed by MAP. Three years after this first step, the Moroccan bid has been going through a long process of examination that is still going on. However, the first signs were initially promising. The Conference of Heads of State, held on June 4, 2017 in Monrovia, had indeed given «its agreement in principle» to the Rabat request. The ECOWAS Commission, then chaired by Beninese Marcel de Souza, was responsible for examining the implications of such accession in accordance with the provisions of the revised ECOWAS treaty and submitting the results during its next session. From overconfidence to disinterest ? The first impact study, revealed in December 2017 during the Abuja summit, which was rather favorable to Morocco, is no longer relevant. Ivorian Jean Claude Brou, who took charge of the Regional Organization Commission in March 2018, has ordered the drafting of a new one. Tha latter, however, has never been published. And it is the same for the report of the presidential committee, composed of Togo, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana and set up during the abovementioned Abuja meeting. With the exception of these two major meetings, the matter has since entered a long phase of uncertainty. The ordinary and extraordinary summits of the Community that followed did not address the Kingdom's bid. The country's request continues to be ignored by the regional grouping. On the Moroccan side, it is clear that the enthusiasm of the first months after the presentation of the request has significantly decreased. Officially, the Minister of Foreign Affairs held no meeting with the Ivorian Jean Claude Brou, while Nasser Bourita had twice met Marcel de Souza : August 29, 2017 in Rabat and November 28 of the same year in Abidjan on the sidelines of the African Union-European Union summit. This means that Nigeria's opposition to Morocco's accession to ECOWAS alone cannot explain the Kingdom's request pending status. In addition to its investments in the region, its expertise in the fight against terrorist groups is sought by the majority of the members of the West African bloc. An asset that marked the way for Morocco's participation in the extraordinary ECOWAS summit in September 2019 in Ouagadougou, devoted to the terrorist threat. This unprecedented participation however has not yet unlocked the status quo.
