Morocco rejects any European-dictated partnership, diplomat
Morocco-European Union, Politics, 3/10/2001

Morocco rejects any partnership formula imposed by the European Union and wants balanced talks on political, economic and social aspects of Morocco-EU partnership, in conformity with the Barcelona conference, said Morocco's ambassador to the European Commissions in Brussels, Aicha Belarbi.

The diplomat noted in an interview run Friday by "Al-Ittihad Ak-ichtiraki" a change in the way European view partnership with Morocco, stemming from the Kingdom's efforts in democracy, human rights and rule of law areas, which earned Morocco the status of a country deserving a fully transparent cooperation.

She went on that while the EU is focusing efforts on enlargement towards east European and European Mediterranean countries, those of the Arab Maghreb ought to build a grouping in order to establish more solid relations with the Union.

Regarding the issue of fisheries, she insisted Morocco has not yielded to any pressure to start negotiations for a new agreement with the Union and that it remains attached to its positions announced previously.

To a question of Moroccan illegal immigration flows to Europe, Belarbi criticized the Union which developed a work program without consulting with Moroccans. She added Europeans are handling the immigration issue from a strictly security dimension while Morocco links the phenomenon to development. She further argued that reducing illegal immigration flows requires an approach combining development, investments encouragement and relocating major companies' activities to Morocco to generate jobs.

However, she said most of illegal immigrants in Europe are made of East European nationals.

Previous Stories:
  Fishery issue between Morocco, Spain   (2/14/2001)
  Morocco-EU association committee meets in Rabat tuesday   (2/5/2001)

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