The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Jose Manuel Albares, pointed out this Friday to Algeria as solely responsible for the “escalation” after the decision to suspend foreign trade operations with Spain due to the change of position on Western Sahara. That is why he calls for resuming dialogue and “relationships based on friendship.”
After meeting with the vice-president of the Commission responsible for EU trade policy, Valdis Dombrovskis, the Spanish minister has assured that the “unilateral decision violates the association agreement” of Algeria with the European Union (EU). “Therefore, although it is directed at Spain, it affects the single market, Algeria’s economic and commercial relations” with the European Union, he added.
“��DIRECT | José Manuel Albares, Minister of Foreign Affairs, after addressing the crisis with Algeria at the European Commission
��️”Commercial policy is community and we have agreed that the measure announced by Algeria affects the single market”
▶️ https://t.co/MFBFHOkvUO pic.twitter.com/tmcaJSFdYV“
— Radio 5 (@radio5_rne) June 10, 2022
Likewise, he recalled that the commercial relationship between both parties “is governed by an association agreement that has some articles in very clear paragraphs“, and has advanced that the European Commission “has tools and instruments to be able to deal with any type of situation”.
Despite this, the head of Spanish diplomacy has insisted on the desire to maintain dialogue with Algeria and “the same relationship as with all the neighbours”, based on mutual respect and on “freedom” and sovereigntysince the “debate has to take place within Spain, not through third parties or supporting third parties”.
He blames the crisis on the unilateral decisions of Algiers
The minister has blamed the crisis on the unilateral decisions of the Algerian authorities and has defended that Spain “has not made a single decision” that affects Algeria to produce “no escalation”. Along these lines, he has avoided talking about miscalculations on the part of the Spanish Executive in its foreign policy.
On the other hand, asked about the Popular Party’s request for Pedro Sánchez to appear in Congress, Albares said he was “perplexed” that explanations are demanded of the Prime Minister for the external decisions of a third country.
“There are times when we are the government and the opposition and there are times when we have to be Spain,” he insisted, to immediately dismiss “disloyalty and irresponsibility” with the country and the European institutions, of which he claims to have his support.
Albares meets in Brussels with the head of Commerce
Previously, Dombrovskis and the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, have said in a statement that the Commission follows the crisis with “extreme concern” and analyzes Algiers’ instructions to “financial institutions to stop transactions between the two countries, which at first sight appear to violate the EU-Algeria Association Agreement.”
The Commission considers that the freezing of banking operations related to the foreign trade of products and services “would give rise to discriminatory treatment by a Member State” and that it “would adversely affect the exercise of the Union’s rights under the Agreement”.
Shortly after the Brussels warning was released, Algeria issued a statement denying that it had frozen commercial transactions with Spain and assuring that it would not cut off the gas supply. “The European Commission reacted without prior consultation or verification any with the Algerian government before the suspension by Algeria of a bilateral political treaty with a European partner, in this case Spain”, denounced the Algerian mission before the EU.
“Algeria has already made it known through the most authoritative voice, that of the President of the Republic, that will continue to meet all commitments assumed in this context, it is up to the interested commercial companies to assume all their contractual commitments”, he specified.
The Government advocates a “calm and firm” response
This Thursday Albares assured that the Government was studying “the scope” of the suspension of the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborhood and Cooperation and advocated giving a “calm, constructive and firm” response, according to the “interests of Spain”. “We have to analyze this measure, what it entails, what it implies at the national and European level and give the appropriate response so that Spain’s interests are defended,” he said.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs once again repeated that currently “There is no problem” with the flow of gas, since Algeria is the second largest supplier of gas to our country after the United States: “What the gas companies convey to us is that there is no difficulty with respect to this measure for this to continue to be the case.”
Algeria is Spain’s second largest trading partner in Africa, after Morocco, while the North African country ranks 28th among EU partners.