2023-06-26 07:25:42
The Government doses the information on the agreements reached with Morocco or the details of what is currently being negotiated with the North African country. The hidden, according to the opposition. The Executive alleges that making it public could anger Rabat.
The Foreign Ministry has avoided handing over to opposition parliamentarians the agreements signed with Morocco at the Rabat summit held last February. From the PP they formally requested it, through parliament, on May 17, without obtaining a response. With the electoral advance and the dissolution of the Cortes, the petition has expired. Nor have they received an answer through informal channels.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, denies the major. He has accused this Tuesday the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of launching “hoaxes” by stating that the agreements reached between Spain and Morocco are not known. Albares has summoned him to read them “on the Moncloa website” where, he says, “they are reflected”.
in bliss official web there are brief notes prepared by the communication teams that summarize the agreements reached (Memorandums of Understanding, according to the notes themselves). But, as of the closing date of this article, the Memorandums themselves are not published, as has been possible check this newspaper and diplomatic sources and Moncloa have confirmed. These documents are what the opposition is requesting, according to what Pilar Rojo, spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Senate for the PP, explained to El Periódico de España, from the Prensa Ibérica group.
Yes, the Joint Declaration between Morocco and Spain after the Rabat summit was posted in its entirety, and it was made public at the time. In its 12 pages and 74 points, the Government reiterates its support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara but, on the other hand, it does not include the commitment of the two countries to avoid “everything that we know offends the other party, especially as it affects our respective spheres of sovereignty”.
The details of the agreements are sensitive. Because Memoranda on migration management have been signed, a sensitive issue after the deaths of dozens of migrants from the Melilla fence; or because there are issues such as maritime delimitations that affect where Spanish boats can fish or where Morocco can prospect for gas or oil, among many other issues.
For example, the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, signed a Memorandum with his Moroccan counterpart for collaboration in the fields of health or the development of animal and vegetable production. But the issue of fishing and agriculture in Morocco is delicate. The General Court of the EU has declared invalid the agreements that allow tomatoes or octopus to be brought in from the Western Saharan city of Dakhla, for example, because they are extracted without the consent of the Saharawi representative, the Polisario Front. Spain and Morocco are currently working on preparing another two on maritime fishing, aquaculture and the fight against illegal fishing, and on agriculture.
airspace management
The Government justifies “the reserved nature of the results of the high-level meeting” by “the need to avoid harm in foreign relations”, according to the allegation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a request for information made by this newspaper to the Transparency Portal. El Periódico de España has requested information on the status of the implementation of the Spain-Morocco roadmap signed on April 7 and the RAN agreements of February 1 and 2, relating to air and maritime space. Specifically, about the working group on the delimitation of maritime spaces on the Atlantic coast, the layout defended by Spain and if the transfer of part of the control of the airspace over the Sahara to Morocco is negotiated.
The delimitation of territorial waters between Spain and Morocco is key. Rabat claims part of some waters that Spain considers its own. Each state is entitled, by international law, to certain kilometers of territorial waters of 22 kilometers from its coast and an Exclusive Economic Zone of up to 370. But the waters between the Canary Islands and Morocco overlap, and there is a large area in dispute. to the south. Until now it was divided equally, but Morocco wants to redraw that division, based on its population or the extension of its coast. In addition, he wants to include the waters off Western Sahara. It is unknown what delimitation Spain defends in these negotiations.
“In these kinds of high-level meetings positions whose eventual publicity would provoke reactions in third countries are reflectedwhich could put the bilateral relationship with foreign governments at risk, in this case, especially with the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco”, explains the Government, in application of the limitations on the right of access established by the transparency law, access to public information and good governance.
The Sánchez Executive frequently alleges that discretion is necessary to carry out some of the negotiations diplomats on the go In other sensitive talks, such as the one carried out with the United Kingdom through the EU on Gibraltar, citizens and opposition politicians have public documents that frame them, in this case the New Year’s Eve Agreements or the negotiation mandate delivered to Brussels.
Another of the most controversial working groups is that of the airspace management over Western Sahara, a territory pending decolonization currently occupied by Morocco. Spain manages it. The Sahara was a Spanish province until, in 1975, it was ceded to Rabat in the Madrid Agreements. Spain announced bilaterally that it was no longer an administering power in 1976. However, judgments of the National Court and United Nations doctrine ensure that it continues to be, until the territory is decolonized. It is in this context that Spain is dedicated to air control over that desert area. Several deputies have asked the Foreign Minister if the transfer of that airspace to Morocco is being negotiated. The answer has been that the management is being negotiated, but it is not clear if there is talk of a transfer of the same.
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