France's Highest Administrative Court Hands Algeria, Polisario Another Setback
The Council of State, France's highest administrative court, has stunned the Polisario Front and its supporter Algeria by rejecting a Morocco-bashing request by the pro-Polisario Confederation Paysanne that sought to undermine agriculture cooperation between France and Morocco.
The confederation, a pro-Polisario group, had urged the French government to ban the importation of cherry tomatoes and Charentais melons from Moroccan southern provinces in Western Sahara .
In its complaint, the pro-Polisario confederation cited the hostile verdict of the European Court of Justice, which accused the European Commission of 'violating' the 'right of self-determination' to 'the people of Western Sahara' and called for invalidating the fisheries and agriculture agreements between EU and Morocco.
In response, the council said it had no legitimacy to order a ban on the importation of Moroccan products. This is because the EU court had 'clarified' in its verdict 'that a Member State of the European Union cannot unilaterally ban the import of agricultural products whose labeling does not comply with EU legislation regarding the indication of the country of origin,' explained the council.
This means that only European authorities are competent to make the decision to ban or allow the import of products from a third country, the council. It noted that even EU ministers responsible for their respective countries' economy and agriculture 'could not legally ban the import' of the cherry tomatoes and melons harvested in Morocco's southern provinces.
Read also: Analyst: European Commission Aviation Announcement Will Unlikely Affect EU-Morocco Ties
The council's rejection of the pro-Polisario group's hostile appeal comes at a time when some pro-Polisario lobbying forces, including within the French government and Spain, are pushing to shift the EU and some European countries' Sahara stances in favor of claims challenging Morocco's territorial integrity.
Another recent pro-Polisario maneuver is a report that French television channel M6 published on January 26.
In it, M6 made serious allegations about Moroccan fertilizers being harmful. The French channel notably claimed that Moroccan fertilizers contain high levels of cadmium, a harmful substance that carries heavy metals that can cause irreversible damage to the human organism.
Observers have stressed that the main reason behind these claims was to undermine the rapidly deepening France-Morocco ties.
Since President Macron announced his country's support for Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara, Paris, and Rabat have repeatedly signaled their shared determination to further cement their booming bilateral cooperation in a wide range of strategic sectors.
For observers, both this evolving friendship and France's support for Morocco's Sahara stance constitute an unacceptable development for Algeria. Tags: France and AlgeriaPolisario
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