Brussels, 15/05/2014 (agence EUROPE) - Algeria “reiterates its call on the EU to accompany and support it in its quest for accession to the WTO (World Trade Organisation) in line with the commitment made in the association agreement”, according to an official press release published by the press agency APS summing up the results of the eighth session of the Association Council, in Brussels on Tuesday 13 May (our translation).
Algeria believes that a bilateral agreement with the EU will “considerably facilitate (its) accession to this organisation”. It goes on to describe as “encouraging and positive” the EU's position at recent meetings in Brussels and Geneva on Algeria's accession to the WTO and the hopes that it will be “supported at forthcoming rounds of negotiations”.
The press release goes on to report that Algeria has expressed its “satisfaction at the deepening of dialogue and cooperation with the European Union (EU) on topical issues of common interest” at the end of the Association Council. This session “once again highlighted the willingness of both sides to reinforce their cooperation and partnership relations further and their irreversible commitment to greater closeness and solidarity in their approach to their expectations and interests”, it reads.
According to Algiers, this implementation “should take account of the needs and interests of both parties”. Its government therefore hopes that the EU's support to the diversification of the Algerian economy “will translate into reality by the more sustained involvement of the EU in the various cooperation programmes and the opening-up of its market to Algerian products by way of support to certain nascent industries in Algeria”. The Algerian delegation stressed in Brussels on Tuesday that the concrete accompaniment and support of the EU are “more vital than ever”, according to the press release.
On the action plan currently being finalised, the Algerian party welcomes the “work carried out to date by both sides to create this new cooperation instrument”, which aims to “add value in priority areas which present a specific interest for Algeria and its programme of political and economic reforms and promote dialogue and relations of bilateral cooperation”. Lastly, the Algerian delegation expressed its wishes that this plan will be a “new instrument at the service of a win-win partnership in specific priority areas in which Algeria is seeking to consolidate its capacity, to move towards the Community acquis and to make the most of its comparative advantages with the EU.” (FB)