European Union postpones meeting with Moroccan FM, Morocco deplores madrid's Europeanizing the problem
Morocco-European Union, Politics, 9/28/2002

Morocco deplored Friday the postponement by the European side of the meetings that were scheduled next week in Brussels between the Moroccan minister of foreign affairs and cooperation and senior executives of the European Commission and Council, in view of the "insistent pressures" exerted by Spain which attempts to "Europeanize" a bilateral difference (between Madrid and Rabat.)

Morocco's ambassador to the European Communities, Ms Aicha Belarbi, voiced amazement at the postponement and said the Moroccan foreign minister's visit was planned following the meeting between King Mohammed VI and President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, held earlier this month in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, at Prodi's request.

Benaissa's visit is part of regular and traditional dialogue between Morocco and the EU over the promotion of their bilateral relations in the frame of the association accord between the two sides and Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, initiated in Barcelona in 1995, the Moroccan diplomat said in a release.

Benaissa was scheduled to visit Brussels next Tuesday for talks with the European Union's high representative for external relations, Javier Solana, over Morocco-EU relations.

Solana's spokeswoman had said that the meeting, decided more than two weeks ago, would cover the present crisis in relations between Morocco and Spain and that Solana was ready to contribute to the normalization of relations between the two countries, although it considers the crisis as "a bilateral problem" that should be settled through dialogue.

The European Union wants a rapid normalization of relations between Spain, a member-country, and Morocco, an important partner of the union, the spokeswoman had said.

Ms Belarbi said she learnt from EU sources that the last minute postponement is the result of insistent pressure by the Spaniards.

"Morocco, which remains fundamentally attached to its relations with the European Union and its member states deplores this postponement, its causes as well as Spain's attempts to Europeanize a difference that has a strictly bilateral character with an associated partner of the EU," the Moroccan diplomat said.

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