Brussels, 17/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on 22 November, the EU and Morocco are to hold their Association Council against a backdrop dominated both by the forthcoming Euromed Summit of Barcelona and the issue of immigration. The session will be an opportunity to take stock of all aspects of cooperation planned under the association agreement and action plan designed as part of the neighbourhood policy. An informal meeting over breakfast will allow the European and Moroccan ministers to hold political exchanges of views on the main news issues internationally and in the region (Mediterranean, Middle East, Sahara, etc).
The talks will focus on the results of work carried out by various sub-committees, which were set up to deal with the priority themes of EU/Morocco cooperation, and working groups set up to deal with sensitive issues such as human rights. An agreement on the reference terms of this committee (its mission and its scope of competencies) is said already to exist "on paper", according to a Community source, and a final decision is anticipated for this session of the Association Council. For the remainder, the relationship between the EU and Morocco does not seem to be faced with any particular problems, and the European Commission views it with satisfaction. Cooperation with Rabat bears witness to the fact that the smooth running of the association policy and the neighbourhood policy can go hand in hand, and Morocco can even bring to it "added value", which qualifies it for a "advanced status" in its relations with the EU, the same Community source added. On this, Morocco should be able to present itself as a "good student " of Euro-Mediterranean dialogue in Barcelona at the end of November. The European Commission also hopes for positive results in the field of immigration. "Fortunately, the existence of an action plan has allowed us immediately to envisage common actions", but the ball is really in the court of the Member States of the EU, which are urged to commit to a common immigration policy, the same source notes, taking the view that "these bilateral policies have gone as far as they can, and they are not enough fully to respond to the scale of the problem in the countries of northern Africa, which must no longer be seen solely as supplying countries, but also as transit countries". This development should be an incentive to use a Community policy to tackle head-on this problem, which also covers the whole of the neighbouring regions of north Africa, into sub-Saharan Africa.
Among the other main subjects features that of agriculture. It is apparent that Morocco wishes to move forward on this, and has asked to bring forward by one year (2006 instead of 2007) its meetings with the European Commission, and is already ready to negotiate free-trade in line with the wishes expressed by the EU (EUROPE 9069). A vital question is that of financial resources, and Morocco is concerned by vacillations in the budgetary debate within the Union, for which the countries of the "neighbourhood" zone could end up picking up the tab.