The Diplomat
The EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, met this past Monday in Rome with the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Naser Bourita, to whom he conveyed the importance for Morocco of having a “strong” relationship with the European Union.
The meeting took place in the margins of the ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition against Daesh, which was also attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya. Although it was the first time that the head of Spanish diplomacy coincided with her Moroccan counterpart since the beginning of the diplomatic crisis between the two countries, there was no meeting between them.
Bourita did meet with the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who spoke to her about “peace and regional stability, human rights and freedom of the press”, and with Josep Borrell, according to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself. During this meeting, as European sources indicated to the Europa Press agency, both “discussed in general the recent tensions and reiterated the importance of a strong strategic partnership between the EU and Morocco”. Bourita had already met Borrell in the past during the latter’s time as Foreign Minister in Spain.
On June 10, the European Parliament adopted by a large majority a resolution rejecting Morocco’s use of border controls and migration, and in particular of unaccompanied minors, as a means of exerting political pressure against Spain. He also recalled that the protection of Ceuta as an external border “concerns the entire EU”. Following this vote, Nasser Bourita declared that the resolution was “a futile attempt to Europeanize a bilateral crisis whose genesis is known and whose responsibilities are well defined”. In its response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled that Spain “belongs to the EU” and, therefore, any border crisis related to the Southern Neighborhood “is Europeanized almost by default”.
Rabat and Madrid are currently going through a very serious diplomatic crisis due to the entry and hospitalization in Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, which was answered by Morocco with an uncontrolled avalanche of immigrants across the border with Ceuta, with a call for consultations of the Moroccan ambassador in Madrid and with a whole series of public accusations against Spain.
