The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured yesterday in Madrid that the resumption of the passage of goods through Ceuta and Melilla will take place “before” the High Level Meeting (RAN, for its acronym in Spanish) between Spain and Morocco, to be held on February 1 and 2 in Rabat.
“The entire Spanish-Moroccan roadmap set out in the Spanish-Moroccan declaration of April 7 is going to be fulfilled, and as announced by the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita, with me, both in New York and in Barcelona on the margins of the UfM meeting, this first passage of goods from Ceuta and Melilla will take place before the high-level meeting”, Albares assured during a joint press conference with his Moldovan counterpart, Nicolae Popescu, at the ministerial headquarters of the Viana Palace.
To that end, he continued, “the teams are working on the last technical details”. “Yesterday (on Monday), in fact, the last meeting took place, and the concrete announcement will be made at the appropriate time, but, of course, all the commitments are going to be fulfilled, as jointly announced by the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and myself,” he added.
In implementation of the roadmap agreed to Rabat by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Albares and Bourita agreed last September in New York on the gradual and partial resumption of the passage of goods through land customs posts. Specifically, the two ministers agreed to hold the RAN in November and to open the passage of goods through Ceuta and Melilla in January. Therefore, this opening was scheduled to take place after (not before) the dates then considered for the high-level meeting, despite Albares’ assurances yesterday.
This measure would imply the reestablishment of customs controls in Melilla, paralyzed since October 2018, and the establishment of a new customs in Ceuta, which currently does not exist. For the time being, the two customs offices remain closed, but the two governments have repeatedly expressed their desire to open them before the RAN.
For his part, the national deputy of the PP Fernando Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu criticized yesterday from Melilla “the existing uncertainty” before the imminent opening of the commercial customs in the two autonomous cities and affirmed that Spain faces the summit with Morocco “from the institutional weakness”.
European Parliament
During the debate held yesterday in the Congress of Deputies, some opposition groups reproached Pedro Sánchez that the PSOE MEPs in the European Parliament voted against a resolution condemning Morocco for its lack of respect for human rights.
One of these MEPs, the former Minister of Justice Juan Fernando López Aguilar, yesterday criticized the criticism of Morocco made from the European Parliament and went so far as to affirm that it will be necessary to “swallow toads”, if necessary, for the good of the relationship with Spain’s “inexorable neighbor”.
López Aguilar, who is the current president of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament, complained during his intervention in the Premium Atlantic Forum organized by Diario de Avisos about the “flaming and very offensive speeches against Morocco and everything concerning Morocco, its political system, its penal system, its monarchy, its king” that are heard in the European Parliament.
In his opinion, “it is profoundly foolish, it cannot be expected from someone who has government responsibilities to use such language”, while he considered that Spaniards would not accept “to see broadcast on television ruthless interventions with Spain, with its institutions and with its king abroad”. “Wouldn’t they think that something smells like a burnt horn?” he asked those present.
López Aguilar warned that “all that ruthless discourse with Morocco is not innocuous, it has consequences and those consequences are not good for us” since Morocco “is our inexorable neighbor” and Spain cannot do without it. “The only way to solve the situation is from mutual respect, and that must be built swallowing own’s pride if necessary, but it must be built,” he said.
