The Diplomat
Spain’s territories in North Africa, apart from Ceuta and Melilla, lack a defined legal status within the organisation of the state, which leaves them vulnerable in the event that Morocco wants to assert its claim to them, according to the Observatorio de Ceuta y Melilla.
The two autonomous cities “are clearly anchored in the State’s territorial management model” and are expressly mentioned in the Constitution, but the same is not true of the islet of Perejil, the rocks of Vélez de la Gomera and Alhucemas and the Chafarinas islands, the Observatory stresses in its recent report ‘The European consolidation of Ceuta, Melilla and the other Spanish territories in North Africa’, published by Europa Press on the 20th anniversary of Morocco’s invasion of Perejil.
These territories ‘do not have a defined status in the decentralised organisation of the Spanish state, a circumstance that generates legal uncertainty and undoubtedly projects greater vulnerability in the complex relationship with Morocco’, argues Professor Jesús Verdú Baeza, from the University of Cádiz, in the report.
As a result, they depend directly on the central state administration, although “there is no clear administration with defined and ordered competences” over these territories, “with the Ministry of Defence being the institution with the greatest presence” on these rocks and islets.
This lack of definition, according to Alejandro del Valle, Professor of International Law and International Relations at the University of Cadiz, poses “major legal and political problems” and constitutes a “very weak flank” for the state when it comes to defending its sovereignty over these territories.
On the one hand, Del Valle points out, they pose “a difficult explanation and political justification, given their proximity to the Moroccan coast (Chafarinas two miles from the coast and Peñón de Alhucemas, with its two uninhabited islets, less than 1,000 metres from the mainland) or even their integration into the same land territory, as the Peñón de Vélez is actually a peninsula” after being joined to the mainland in 1934 by an 80-metre sandy isthmus.
On the other hand, it is necessary to take into account the “non-existence of economic activity and civilian population, and only military presence, occasionally scientific”, adds this expert, who nevertheless stresses that all of them enjoy “good defence under international law” as they have their “corresponding Spanish legal titles of historical origin, cession, conquest and occupation”.
In the specific case of the rocks, according to Del Valle, “they pose very serious risks” due to the lack of a civilian population – there is only one military garrison -, “the existence of two islets (Isla de Tierra and Isla de Mar) very close to the shore and without a permanent Spanish presence”, “the extreme proximity or integration into the Moroccan coast in the case of Vélez” and “the possibility that Morocco might at some point decide to make a selective claim”, in addition to their “undefined legal status”.
In this sense, he proposes “giving the rocky areas ‘normalised legal recognition‘ in both Spanish and European law, and ‘offering a different sense and meaning to their current functions and, in general, to Spain’s role in these fragments of state on the African coast”.
To this end, the professor proposes, in addition to “intensifying references to the crags and islands in Spanish and European legislation”, the possibility of converting them into “places of memory of the wars in the Rif in the 19th and 20th centuries“. This proposal is based on the fact that both rocks were the scene of “battles and even the bay of Al Hoceima saw the first major modern war landing in 1925”.
Del Valle believes that “it would be interesting” to involve Morocco, and also France because of its historical involvement, in an initiative of this type, but in any case Spain could act unilaterally along these lines.
By giving the rocks a new meaning, moreover, Spain would take the initiative “in the international arena, with the addition of offering Morocco the chance to collaborate in the reconversion of the Vélez and Al Hoceima rocks as places of history, memory and reunion between the Moroccan and Spanish peoples”. “Just to have this possibility in the pipeline is enough to take the initiative with Morocco in these conflictive territories”, he remarked.
As for the Chafarinas archipelago, made up of the islands of Congreso, Isabel II and Rey Francisco, they were incorporated into Spanish territory in 1848 and have been inhabited and with a permanent presence of public administrations ever since. These islands were occupied by a fleet commanded by General Francisco Serrano with no record of any previous presence of any other power or of what is now Morocco.
The Alaouite kingdom claims this archipelago -as well as the rocks and also Ceuta and Melilla- and uses it as a point of support to delimit its territorial sea, which includes “part of the presumably Spanish waters of the archipelago”, stresses Professor Verdú, who points out that the maritime spaces to the east with Algeria have not been delimited either, which could also generate controversy.
“The absence of an agreement on the delimitation of Spanish maritime spaces in North Africa has a high potential for destabilisation, which will increase as the exploration and exploitation of existing resources in the area becomes viable,” warns this expert in international law. In fact, the Chafarinas Islands have made headlines in recent months due to Morocco’s installation of a fish farm in their vicinity.
As in the case of the rocky outcrops, the report also makes some proposals. Special emphasis is placed on the biodiversity that surrounds these islets and their recognition as such not only at Spanish but also at European level, which gives the Chafarinas “a European status that gives them a special singularity”.
In Verdú’s opinion, the situation of the Chafarinas “offers an unequalled opportunity to establish a coordination framework with Morocco” despite the fact that the maritime borders with this country have not yet been delimited.
In this sense, he refers to the possibility of creating a Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI) in accordance with the Barcelona Convention, which allows for transnational areas promoted by several countries. “Spain and Morocco could expressly preserve their initial legal positions without prejudging them,” he argues.
The creation of a Maritime Protected Area that would include Chafarinas, the Alboran Sea area and the Moroccan coastal maritime strip “would be a unique opportunity for cooperation and normalisation of extraordinarily complex relations” such as those between Spain and Morocco, the author argues.
