On Monday 13 February, Algeria's director general of cooperation with Europe, Ali Mokrani, stated that the review of the EU-Algeria association agreement, which was launched nearly two years ago, will be finalised next March.
A session of the Association Council will be called nearer this date. This, then, would seem to be the announcement of a new start to the cooperation – which has had difficulty in reaching cruising speed. The EU shows great interest in Algeria, which is a significant supplier of oil and gas, and which potentially has a key role in the security of the EU's southern flank.
Algeria's foreign minister, Ramtane Lamamra, will be hosted in Brussels on Wednesday by the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Federica Mogherini, and then by the European commissioner for neighbourhood policy, Johannes Hahn. Lamamra's intention, according to direct sources, is to speak about the situation in the region, especially in Libya – the outcome of which is the objective of diplomatic initiatives from its strongly mobilised neighbouring countries. The future of the Maghreb will be on the agenda, particularly since the King of Morocco said at the recent African Unity summit that the Maghreb-wide institution was out of breath and "extinguished". The EU is focusing its attention more on the Western Mediterranean, which is relatively conflict-free, apart from the Western Sahara. The legal precedent laid down by the European Court of Justice on this subject will no doubt be mentioned. Algiers is playing a direct role alongside the Polisario and intends to exert influence on the EU's extremely cautious position.
On the level of direct relations, the association agreement, signed in 2002, was implemented late (September 2005) and, in the end, subject to an Algerian demand for its revision. Algiers believed that after ten years of application, the association agreement was imbalanced and did not bring any benefit commercially, and it supported this argument with statistics. Algeria remains an exporter of hydrocarbons, with 96% of its sales coming from this, and it has not attracted many European investors. The government has since revised it policy for welcoming them but its choices have not, however, been definitive or convincing domestically or externally (with the EU, or with the WTO – with which the negotiations have been dragging on for years).
The cooperation in other areas has certainly resumed with momentum, broadened to energy and security, along with the project for jointly stemming the flow of illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Political dialogue is held regularly and covers all subjects, domestic and external, including the issue of human rights – a sensitive topic in this relationship.
Algeria and the EU will "approve a reference document that contains guidelines for the relationship to be increasingly strengthened and appeased", Algeria's media report, quoting Mokrani. "The assessment of this agreement will enable the two partners to 'centre their relationship', during the coming years, on a 're-balancing of economic interests', especially for the diversification of the Algerian economy", this senior official states. "We are in the process of working on the next financial programming (2017-2020) which should accompany the common conclusions. We will thus have succeeded in putting the association agreement back on track", Mokrani said, as reported by Algerian media.
The diversification of the economy will be an important goal for this approach in order to correct the imbalance that is deplored by the Algerians. Energy will be at the centre of this cooperation. It will remain a "key sector" based on the objective of "diversification of the energy offer with the development of renewable energies", different sources state. A ministerial meeting on energy will reportedly be planned. (Original version in French by Fathi B’Chir)