Brussels, 25/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - A team of Socialist MEPs headed by Véronique De Keyser (S&D, Belgium) was in Morocco at the end of last week on a fact-finding mission in the Western Sahara, to investigate the human rights situation in this disputed territory. The assignment comes prior to a debate at the European Parliament on this subject, on the basis of a report drafted by Charles Tannock (EPP, UK). It will be extended later with a similar visit to Algeria but exact dates for this have still to be announced.
During the fact-finding mission, the parliamentary delegation, whose composition has been carefully balanced, met various eminent Moroccan figures, officials and representatives of the civil society, the special representative of the UN secretary general and the head of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), Wolfgang Weisbrod-Weber, and also Aminatou Haidar, who is a Sahrawi human rights activist. The Moroccan press agency simply writes that the delegation is making a visit to the southern provinces where it will meet various players in the region, after having reported on meetings with the speaker of the House, Karim Ghellab, who reaffirmed the excellence of the relations between Morocco and the EU within the context of the country's “Advanced Status”. The visit, Ghellab said, is of all the more significance as the European Parliament is a key partner in the decisions taken by the EU concerning Morocco.