The Diplomat
The Popular Parliamentary Group in Congress has presented a Non-Law Proposition in which it urges the Government to enable lines of financial support for “all those companies affected by the crisis with Algeria”, to promote “intense and persistent” bilateral diplomatic action to recompose full relations with Algeria and to inform the Foreign Affairs Committee on actions to resume relations with that country.
“The sudden change of position of the Government of Spain regarding Western Sahara has been very negative also for the Spanish companies with commercial interests in Algeria”, affirms the Non-Law Proposition, presented last February 20 by the deputies Valentina Martínez Ferro, Pablo Hispán and Eloy Suárez for its debate in the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The latest data published by the Secretary of State for Trade, it continues, “reflect that exports from Spain to Algeria have fallen by 82% in the six months after Algeria decided to suspend ‘immediately’ the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation with Spain”.
“The suspension of this Treaty of Friendship is linked to the change of position on Western Sahara”, as it was announced by the President of Algeria, Abdelmayid Tebune, “immediately” after the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, ratified last June 8 in Congress “his unilateral change of position” regarding “the historic Spanish position on the conflict in Western Sahara”.
“The data reflect that the nearly 600 companies with business interests in Algeria have lost no less than 773 million euros between June and November 2022,” continues the motion. “In the last six months, which coincide with the beginning of the crisis, Spain has exported only 165.1 million euros worth of goods and services, compared to 938 million euros exported in the same period last year,” it adds. Up to May 2022, Spanish exports to Algeria were growing by 8.2%, or 64.1 million more than in the same period of 2021. “However, in June began a steep fall that has yielded a negative balance and an accumulated drop of 82%,” warns the PP.
“These data reflect the difficult situation that Spanish companies trading with Algeria are going through without seeing a possible solution on the near horizon,” says the PP, which also recalls that, “at the beginning of this 2023, a dozen businessmen with interests in the country met with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, but the results have been null because diplomatic contacts with Algeria are non-existent.”
For all these reasons, the Popular Parliamentary Group presents a Non-Law Proposition in which the Government is urged to “enable lines of financial support for all those companies affected by the crisis with Algeria”, to promote “an intense and persistent bilateral diplomatic action to restore full relations with Algeria within the framework of the Treaty of Friendship signed in 2002” and to “inform the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies of the actions it is taking to resume relations with Algeria and reactivate the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborliness with the country”.
