Morocco-EU association committee meets in Rabat tuesday

The Morocco-European Union association committee meets in Rabat as of Tuesday to set up management mechanisms of the Moroccan-European Union association accord that came into force in March 2000.

Besides political dialogue, economic, financial, social and cultural issues are also on the agenda of the Rabat meeting. The committee will equally discuss Morocco's call inviting the EU to place partnership with the kingdom at a special level, higher than that of association and lower than that of full-fledged membership. The meeting will also set a timetable to negotiations on the agricultural dossier.

Morocco's ambassador to the European communities in Brussels, Ms Aicha Belarbi, told MAP bureau here on the eve of the meeting, that agricultural negotiations did not take place at the scheduled time because the association accord was enforced four years after it was signed. Besides, she added, Morocco does not want that the negotiations on fisheries be linked to the issue of Moroccan tomatoes exports to the European Union.

During the association council meeting held last October in Luxemburg at ministerial level, Morocco had called for the progressive establishment of a customs union, Ms Belarbi recalled, adding that in addition to the preferential treatment provided for in the association accord, Morocco sticks to its right to export to the EU in the frame of non-preferential regime, in line with the regulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO), mainly the principle of most favored nation.

She explained that for Morocco, free access of its tomatoes to the European markets in the frame of the principle of most favored nation must be considered as a right and not as a European Union concession.

Ms Belarbi also spoke of ongoing negotiations on fisheries, insisting on Morocco's keenness to preserve its sea resources and promote its fishery sector.

Of immigration, the Moroccan diplomat said Morocco supports a comprehensive approach that takes into account not only the problems of illegal immigration but also those facing the two-million strong Moroccan community legally settled in Europe. This community, she said, is facing cultural, integration and discrimination problems.

Ms Belarbi, who pointed out that Morocco-EU relations were witnessing a good evolution, insisted that the association accord should not be limited to the economic aspect of partnership but should cover human and solidarity dimensions as well.