Africa

A ruling by the CJEU warns that the government in Rabat does not have sovereignty over Western Sahara and that this occupied territory cannot be included in trade or fishing agreements between the EU and Morocco.

The decision, announced on Oct. 4 by the president of the CJEU, Koen Lenaerts, rejected all of the EU’s appeals and confirmed the conclusions of the court’s first level. The magistrate made it clear that trade and fisheries agreements between the EU and Morocco involving Western Sahara must cease within a maximum of one year. Clearly, the ruling considers that by establishing trade agreements with Morocco, the European Commission has violated the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination.

SADR diplomacy explains that the court’s decision culminates a series of legal battles challenging the inclusion of Western Sahara in agreements between the EU and Morocco. The ruling follows previous decisions in 2016 and 2018, in which the court had already annulled the application of trade and fisheries agreements between Brussels and Rabat that included Western Sahara.

The CJEU has consistently held that Western Sahara is a “separate and distinct” territory over which Morocco has neither sovereignty nor a mandate. Under international law, the people of Western Sahara have the right to self-determination, and any agreement involving their territory must obtain their explicit consent. The 2021 rulings also clarify that this consent must be obtained through the U.N.-recognized representative of Western Sahara, the Polisario Front, a principle that the European court has now confirmed.

This decision by the CJEU is, on the one hand, a humiliating defeat for Moroccan colonialism and its supporters, with the European Union at their head, and, on the other hand, another victory for the Saharawi people in their long struggle for the right to sovereignly decide their own destiny.