The European Union’s General Court, on Wednesday, canceled two trade agreements between the European Council and Morocco.
The European Court of First Instance, based in Luxembourg, annulled “the decisions of the Council (of the EU) relating, on the one hand, to the agreement between the EU and Morocco modifying the tariff preferences.
The EU had granted preferences to products of Moroccan origin.
The other agreement is on sustainable fisheries.
“However, the effects of these decisions are maintained for a certain period, because their annulment with immediate effect is likely to have serious consequences on the external action of the Union and to call into question the legal security of the international commitments to which it has agreed,” reads the judgment, which deals with actions for annulment brought by the Polisario against two Council decisions approving the conclusion of agreements between the European Union and Morocco.
The court annuls the contested decisions, while deciding that the effects of these decisions are maintained for a certain period.
In a joint statement issued in Brussels immediately following the European Court’s decision, Morocco and the EU pledged to take “the necessary steps to ensure the legal framework that guarantees the continuation and stability of trade relations” between them.
“We remain fully mobilized to continue the cooperation between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco, in a climate of serenity and commitment, in order to consolidate the Euro-Moroccan Partnership of Shared Prosperity, launched in June 2019,” they said.
The EU and Morocco continue to work to “develop the multiple dimensions of this strategic partnership, in the same spirit of mobilization, consistency and solidarity.
This partnership of equals is based, moreover, on a solid bilateral relationship, based on trust and mutual respect, between Morocco and the European Union, while contributing at the same time to the strengthening of this relationship and that with member states,” the joint statement said.
HA/fss/as/APA