Non-recognition of annexation: Euro-MPs denounce EU’s double standards policy in Western Sahara

(SPS) - The European deputies Ivan Stefanec and Jana Zitnanska denounced the double standards policy of the European Union (EU) which doesn’t recognize the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia, but doesn’t apply this policy of non-recognition in Western Sahara occupied by Morocco.

In a question sent to the head of the European diplomacy Federica Mogherini, the Euro-deputies called on the European Union to explain the reasons behind the non-implementation of this policy of non-recognition in Western Sahara, pointing out that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had nevertheless underlined the separate and distinct status of this territory in its judgment of December 2016.

In this historic decision, CJEU said that EU-Morocco association agreement, and consequently the agreement on agricultural and fishing products, wasn’t applicable to the territory of Western Sahara.

The Court had notably noted that the approval of the Sahrawi people is necessary for the conclusion of an agreement which includes Western Sahara, and that there weren’t such an approval.

The European deputies underlined that the advocate general of this Court said on 10 January 2018 that the European Union infringed its obligation “not to recognize an illicit situation” by concluding with Morocco a fisheries agreement which includes the Western Sahara and its territorial waters