ECJ rules EU-Morocco trade deals invalid in Western Sahara

By Julia Payne

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Court of Justice ruled on Friday that the European Commission had breached the right of people in Western Sahara to self-determination by concluding trade deals with Morocco.

Western Sahara, a tract of desert the size of Britain, has been the scene of Africa's longest-running territorial dispute since colonial power Spain left in 1975 and Morocco annexed the territory.

The Commission said it would examine the ECJ judgment in detail, while Morocco condemned the ruling. The Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state in Western Sahara, hailed the verdict as a "historic victory" for the area's Sahrawi people.

Friday's decision is the final ruling after several appeals by the Commission, the European Union's executive arm. The EU signed fishing and agriculture agreements with Morocco in 2019 that also covered products from the Western Sahara.

"The consent of the people of Western Sahara to the implementation... is a condition for the validity of the decisions by which the (EU) Council approved those agreements on behalf of the European Union," the court said.

It said a consultation process that took place had not involved "the people of Western Sahara but the inhabitants who are currently present in that territory, irrespective of whether or not they belong to the people of Western Sahara".

The court also ruled that melons and tomatoes produced in Western Sahara must now have their origin labelled as such.

"Labelling must indicate Western Sahara alone as the country of origin of those goods, to the exclusion of any reference to Morocco, so as to avoid misleading consumers," it said.

'HISTORIC VICTORY'

Welcoming the ECJ ruling, Oubi Bouchraya, the Polisario's representative to the United Nations in Switzerland, said: "It is a historic victory for the Sahrawi people that confirms the wrongdoings of the EU and Morocco and confirms the permanent sovereignty of the Sahrawi people over their natural resources,"

"It is the most eloquent response to the last unilateral position of France and others," he told Reuters.

Western powers including the United States in 2020, and most recently France, have backed Morocco's sovereignty over the territory, angering Algeria.

Thousands of Sahrawi refugees have been stuck in limbo living in desert camps in Tindouf, Algeria.

Morocco's foreign ministry criticised Friday's ruling.

"The content of this decision contains obvious legal errors and suspicious factual mistakes," it said in a statement.

"This at best indicates a total ignorance of the realities of the case, if not a blatant political bias," it said, adding that the court had sought to "replace U.N. bodies and contradict their well-established positions and approaches".

The ministry also urged the EU to uphold its international commitments and safeguard its partnership with Morocco, saying this required "legal certainty".

The United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991 ending a guerrilla war between Morocco and the Polisario but failed to organise a referendum due to disagreements over who should vote.In its recent resolutions, the U.N. Security Council has urged the parties to seek a mutually acceptable political solution to the conflict.

(Reporting by Julia Payne, additional reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi, Editing by Gareth Jones and Timothy Heritage)