2023 is the year expected to close definitively. It is a legal battle. Polisario Front Before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to end the exploitation of the natural resources of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, by Morocco and the European Union. The Polisario Front, a movement of the Saharan people in exile, appealed in 2012 against the fisheries and free trade agreements between Rabat and Brussels, to be implemented until decolonization in Western Sahara was abandoned. If the CJEU decision confirms the 2021 judgment of the General Courtit will not be possible to import tomatoes or octopuses from the former Spanish colony of Dakhla, the old town of Villa Cisneros, without the consent of the Sahrawis; that is, without the yes of the Polisario Front, which reigns in exile in refugee camps in Algeria and is currently at war with Morocco.
The legal confusion is enormous and could require billions of euros in compensation (at least according to the lawyer of the Polisario Front in Paris). and affects some of the Spanish fisheries, especially to the fraternities of Galicia, Andalusia and the Canary Islands. On 17 July, the disputed agreements, whose legality depends on the penalties to be imposed a priori by the Luxembourg CJEU before the end of the year or the beginning of the following year, come to an end. This is the timeline of the jurisdictional conflict over EU-Morocco agreements, drawn up with the help of Juan Soroeta, professor of Public International Law at the University of the Basque Country and expert on the Western Sahara conflict.
2000 FREE TRADE AGREEMENT. EU-Morocco Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement establishing a free trade area enters into force
2007 FISHING AGREEMENT. The second comes into effect Association Agreement between the EU and Morocco in the fishing sector, following the successive ratifications since Spain joined the Union in 1986. Until then, Spain was negotiating directly with Morocco for fishing in Western Sahara waters.
2012 RESOURCES FROM THE POLISARIO FRONT The Polisario Front opposes both agreements. His argument was that Western Sahara is a non-autonomous region and therefore decolonization is pending and does not belong to Morocco as this State is the “occupying power” and not the ruling power of the region. And since an international treaty can only be enforced on the territory of the contracting parties and Western Sahara is not part of Morocco, its application to Sahrawi territory violates international law.
2015 FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS. FIRST DECISION OF THE GENERAL COURT. Responding to questions asked by citizens, companies or countries, the General Court of the European Union (TGUE), at the request of the Polisario Front, decided that the free trade agreement does not apply to “different and different” countries. It is a separate “region” from Western Sahara as it is not part of the Kingdom of Morocco. From that date onwards, the court says, agreements will only be valid if the “people of Western Sahara” consent.
2016 VOID THE JUDGMENT OF THE 2015 DECISION. EU institutions are reacting to the CJEU, which refuses to use it in this case because it understands that the agreements are not “valid” in Western Sahara and are demanding clarification of the regulations. But it confirms one important thing: from then on, agreements will only be valid if the people of Western Sahara consent.
2018 FISHING AGREEMENTS. “THE QUESTION IN THE CONSEQUENCE”. The legality of fishing agreements reached the CJEU with a preliminary ruling put forward by the British High Court. An NGO called Western Sahara Campaign has sued two UK ministries for violating international law by enforcing EU-Morocco fisheries agreements in this state. The British court asked the CJEU about its doubts about the possibility that “a State occupying the territory of another country militarily could negotiate over its own natural resources”.
2018 FISHING AGREEMENTS. CONCLUSIONS OF THE GENERAL DEFENSE. According to the Attorney General’s report (which is always published before the CJEU passes a verdict), when Making fishing agreements with MoroccoThe European Union, among other rules, violates international law on the Saharan people’s right to self-determination and their permanent sovereignty over their natural resources, and through these agreements it assumes international responsibility by recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. and with their behavior they contribute to reinforcing a serious violation of international law, such as the military occupation of the region”, explains Juan Soroetal.
2018 FISHING AGREEMENTS. ABAD’S FIRST DECISION. Contrary to the Attorney General’s conclusions (“96% of catches in the implementation of these fishing agreements are in Western Sahara waters”) and concluded that the agreements were not in violation of international law, as the agreements had not been proven to be applied in Western Sahara when the Court clarified the application of the agreements to Western Sahara waters. there was. Despite this, he insists once again that future agreements will require the consent of the people of Western Sahara.
2019 NEW FREE TRADE AND FISHING AGREEMENTS. To comply with this last requirement, the EU Commission sends a group of experts to the region to obtain approval of the “affected populations” (this replaces the term “Western Saharan people” used by the Court). These experts are meeting with several existing associations in the region (Moroccan settler associations) that approve the implementation of fisheries agreements, and the Polisario Front, which openly rejects it. After receiving this “approval”, the European Parliament gives its assent and two four-year agreements (free trade and fisheries) are signed, in force from February 2019 to 17 July. Soroeta states that “these agreements clearly include Western Sahara in their scope of application, so the court cannot argue that they do not apply there.” The Polisario Front opposes both agreements.
GENERAL COURT DECISIONS ON FREE TRADE AND FISHING AGREEMENTS FOR 2021. In two decisions dated September 29 of the same year, TG declared both agreements null and void. The “consent of the affected peoples” received by the Commission is not equivalent to the “consent of the people of Western Sahara” that should be expressed by the Polisario Front. “These decisions confirm that the Polisario Front is the sole and legitimate representative of the Saharan people and has the authority to represent it before EU courts,” explains Soroeta. The Commission objects to the penalty before the CJEU, which will decide as the last resort.
March 2022 PEDRO SÁNCHEZ TURN. Morocco publishes a letter sent by Pedro Sánchez To Mohamed VI, whose proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara but within the Kingdom of Morocco was “the most serious, credible and realistic” to resolve the historical conflict.
17 July 2023 END OF FISHING AGREEMENT. Both contracts expire because TG, despite declaring them invalid in 2019, allows them to continue to be enforced until then, and this is “despite the court’s admission that both contracts violate a fundamental norm” of international law (its own self-determination) and, under the Law of Treaties, a treaty that violates an imperative legal norm is null and void,” says Soroeta. The EU has already said it will not renegotiate these until a final decision from the CJEU.
End of 2023 or beginning of 2024. CJUE is expected to know its final decision in a few months. The oral procedure will take place in October or November, as anticipated. Then the punishment will come, on the verge of the end of the five-year legislature of the European Parliament. The deal could have implications for Spanish companies such as Indra, Gamesa, Cemengal or Discefa that invest in the region or import tomatoes, octopus or soil from the Sahara. A lawyer for the Polisario Front commented to this newspaper that he has the authority to seek compensation of up to 8,000 million euros.