Morocco is a flagship country and a pillar of stability in the region, said Thursday in Rabat the European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, who stressed “the extreme importance” of the Morocco-EU partnership.
In a global context marked by multiple challenges, it is not easy to find stable partners like Morocco, hence the “extreme importance” of the Morocco-EU partnership, underlined Várhelyi, who was speaking at the a press briefing held following his talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Living Abroad, Nasser Bourita.
The European Commissioner, currently on a working visit to the Kingdom, specified that the signing, this Thursday, by Morocco and the EU of 5 cooperation programs for a total amount of 5.5 billion dirhams (nearly 500 million euros) to support the Kingdom’s major reform projects, testifies to the “direct and serious” commitment on the part of the Union towards Morocco.
“With all of our commitments, we are really changing the nature and depth of our cooperation,” he said, adding that the reforms launched in Morocco are ambitious reforms close to European values.
Morocco is and will be a major beneficiary of the EU’s project agenda for the entire region, Várhelyi insisted, adding that this financial support covers the social, economic, agricultural, water and energy aspects, the latter being a crucial sector on a global scale.
The Kingdom has the potential to become an energy source not only for the region but also for Europe, Várhelyi said, adding that the European market is ready to receive energy from Morocco.
He also stressed the importance of other areas of cooperation between the Kingdom and the EU, including migration and the fight against criminal networks.
Regarding the resumption of relations with Israel, Várhelyi expressed the EU’s willingness to participate in this cooperation, which will make it possible to meet the major challenges facing the region, in particular water management.
This trilateral cooperation, he said, will also make it possible to meet the challenges of research, development and rapprochement between peoples.
In addition, the European Commissioner took this opportunity to congratulate Morocco for its exit from the “grey” list of the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF), welcoming the Moroccan-European cooperation which made it possible to achieve this result.
The second of its kind in less than a year, Várhelyi’s visit to Morocco comes in the context of the implementation of the Joint Political Declaration, adopted in June 2019, which established the “Euro-Moroccan Partnership for Shared Prosperity” which is articulates around four Spaces: politics and security; Economic; values; knowledge, and two horizontal axes: the environment and migration.
It is also part of the regular contacts between the two parties. Contacts illustrated by the recent visit to Morocco of the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, in January 2023, as well as the previous trips of six other members of the College of Commissioners for the year 2022 alone, including the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen.