The Moroccan Atlantic Initiative aims to extend the Atlantic Arc in Africa by creating an area of human community, a pole of economic integration and a centre of continental and international influence for the countries of the African Atlantic coast and the landlocked countries of the Sahel.
Promoted by King Mohammed VI, the Atlantic Initiative opens a new era of North-South dialogue and cooperation, with the prospect of strengthening relations between Europe and Africa.
Florence Kuntz, former Member of the European Parliament and member of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, stresses that this initiative “paves the way for the joint construction of a Europe-Africa macro-region.”
Atlantic Europe, which includes countries such as Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Norway and Iceland, is a geographical and Community area.
The Atlantic Maritime Strategy enables the coastal regions of these Member States to optimize European funding for the development of the marine and maritime economy. Created at the end of the 1980s, the Atlantic Arc is a voluntary association of regions with access to the Atlantic Ocean.
Stretching 2,600km from Scotland to Andalusia, it is home to almost 60 million people and covers around 20 per cent of Europe’s territory.
Florence Kuntz points out that “the oceanic nature of the area and the strengths and weaknesses of its geography are the only reasons for creating this regional sub-region.”
Morocco’s Atlantic Initiative could extend this Atlantic Arc to Africa, sharing with its neighbours along the African Atlantic coast and the landlocked Sahelian states a ‘high point of human community, a pole of economic integration and a focus of continental and international influence’. Florence Kuntz adds that “shared oceans, shared challenges,” underlining the importance of co-constructing responses to the challenges facing coastal regions, such as transport, renewable energy, climate change, fisheries, biodiversity and coastal tourism.
Symbolic projects include the Atlantic Port of Dakhla, which is due for completion in 2028 and will include commercial, fishing and shipbuilding areas, as well as a 1,600-hectare industrial and logistics zone. This port will be a gateway to the African continent and an attractive hub for foreign investors, particularly in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Another major project is the Nigeria-Morocco Atlantic gas pipeline, which will run along the West African coast and connect to the European gas network. Florence Kuntz also stressed the importance of the 2030 World Cup, which will be co-organised by African and European countries, as an “extraordinary Atlantic soft power tool”.
With a new European mandate, the actors of the Atlantic Arc, weakened by Brexit, are trying to give a new dimension to the Atlantic Maritime Strategy. They are urging the Council and the European Commission to
grant them the status of macro-region, in order to better define the geographical perimeter of the Atlantic area and increase European funding for structural projects.
In his speech on 6 November, King Mohammed VI recalled that “Morocco, with its Mediterranean coastline, is firmly anchored to Europe”. With its Atlantic Africa initiative, the Kingdom is working to forge closer links between the two continents. Florence Kuntz concludes by calling on future EU leaders to ‘set a course for the Atlantic’.
MN/te/sf/lb/GIK/APA