Brussels, 16/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a special meeting on Tuesday 23 July to look at the situation created by Morocco setting up an observation post with several men on the island of Perejil, in the Straits of Gibraltar, off the Spanish outpost of Ceuta. Two other issues will be on the agenda of the meeting (to which the High Representative for EFDP, Javier Solana, and the President of the Council, Per Stig Moller, have been invited), namely the outcome of Monday's General Affairs Council and the report by the delegation led by the President of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Elmar Brok (CDU, Germany), which is currently on mission in Iran.
In a joint declaration, Brok and the President of the EP delegation for relations with the Maghreb, Gerardo Galeote (Partido Popular, Spain) joined other European Union leaders in calling for the immediate withdrawal of the "Moroccan presence and sovereignty symbols from the island". They state that the "attitude of the Moroccan Government is incompatible with the current relationship between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco based on an Agreement of Association within the framework of the cooperation policy implemented through the MEDA programme".