First meeting on Morocco - EU association agreement opens in luxembourg

Luxembourg is hosting this Monday the first session of the Morocco - European Union association agreement as the EU foreign ministers are holding their "general affairs" meeting.

The meeting, instituted by the association agreement signed in February 1996 and enforced on last March, meets one a year and any time one of the signatories deem it necessary.

The Luxembourg meeting will assess the seven first months of the association agreement and relations between Morocco and the European Union.

On the agenda are also the situation in the Maghreb and the Middle East and the evolution of the Euro-Mediterranean process.

The European delegation will be led by French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, whose country holds the EU rotating chairmanship, by European commissioner for foreign relations and EU high representative for European policy, Javier Solana.

Led by minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Mohamed Benaissa, the Moroccan delegation comprises Morocco's ambassador-representative at European Communities and top executives at the foreign department and the ministries of finance, economy, tourism, mining, and agriculture.