“Morocco is an essential partner in our southern neighbourhood, an important country with which we are united by preferential links, which we not only wish to preserve but also to strengthen to our mutual benefit”, Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative, said during a visit to Rabat on Friday 4 March 2016. Mogherini undertook this visit to reassure the Moroccan side and to deliver “clarifications and assurances” with a view to emerging from the crisis that has arisen from a European Court ruling on 10 December 2015, which questioned EU-Morocco agricultural agreements. The European Council appealed against this ruling and Morocco, represented by its Minister of Foreign Affairs Salaheddine Mezouar, asked for its “correction”.
The Union “remains convinced that the agreements between Morocco and the European Union do not constitute a violation of international legislation”, Mogherini repeated during a joint press conference in Rabat, and both parties “will work as real partners on this subject”. “Contacts were made at every level” and “interaction and a continuous and transparent dialogue will be organised on regular basis”. The Moroccan minister will be in Brussels the end of March “to finalise the contents of this interaction with the European side”.