The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers approved yesterday the agreement by which it takes note of the declaration of emergency for the contracting of the necessary works for the rehabilitation and improvement of the border perimeter fence between the Kingdoms of Spain and Morocco in the city of Melilla on the north dyke, for an amount of 4,971,776.66 euros.
The improvement works coincide with the lengthy process of opening customs in Ceuta and Melilla, for which there is still no specific timetable, which has generated some concern in the two autonomous cities. To date, only three test operations have been carried out for the opening of customs, between February and May of this year.
The opening of land customs controls in Melilla (paralyzed since October 2018) and the establishment of a new customs office in Ceuta, which currently does not exist, is on the roadmap agreed on April 7, 2022 in Rabat by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and King Mohamed VI of Morocco, in the midst of the recovery of bilateral relations (which were severely damaged in 2021) as a result of the Spanish government’s unexpected decision to recognize the Moroccan plan for autonomy of Western Sahara.
In a recent interview to the agency Europa Press, the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, did not specify when the announced opening of customs will take place and limited himself to commenting that “a road map implies a process, a long-term commitment between the two countries”.
