Brussels, 02/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - The committee on foreign affairs of the European Parliament and the delegation for relations with Maghreb held a hearing in Brussels on Tuesday 1 December, under the presidency of Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, Italy), on the subject of "Reinforcing relations with the neighbourhood countries: lessons learned from Morocco's advanced status". The meeting was attended by three speakers, the former director general for external relations, Eneko Landaburu, who was recently made the EU delegate to Rabat, Youssef Amrani, the secretary general of the Moroccan foreign affairs ministry in charge of monitoring the "advanced status" programme enjoyed by his country and, lastly, Ivan Martin, director of research at the Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales, ICEI, (Spain).
Mr Panzeri, started by stressing the fact that this meeting on "neighbourhood" coincided with the first day of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, which will bring about profound changes (apart from the denomination) of the working methods of the 130 European external delegations and extend the scope of competences to the second pillar, security. In this context, the "advanced status", such as the one enjoyed by Morocco, the first country in the region to be granted one, goes hand-in-hand with the logic of reinforcing the EU's role in its neighbouring regions, said Mr Landaburu. The fact that it has been granted, he went on, constitutes the "EU's recognition" of the progress made by the partner country, which has made a good job of its economic and social reforms, but above all of its political reforms. He welcomed the fact that "it was Morocco itself which implemented" the foundation for this decision to go further and deeper than the association agreement. He went on to list the various areas involved in this "advanced status" procedure, which is not reserved for Morocco alone, but for all partners who have made the hoped-for "qualitative leap". The progress made by Morocco, particularly on a political level, would not otherwise motivate its progress towards the Council of Europe. The most important thing gained is Morocco's integration into the internal market as a whole, once a number of elements of the trade negotiations have been concluded (on right of establishment and services). Mr Amrani supported Mr Landaburu's argument by highlighting the fact that its rapprochement with the EU has, for Morocco, been a constant in its relations ever since the Treaty of Rome. The concern in Rabat, however, is that Morocco's efforts are recognized fully when the "action plan" and its resources are renewed when they expire in 2013. (F.B./trans.fl)