Morocco says European Parliament's resolution does not change political crisis with Spain

RABAT - The resolution adopted Thursday by the European Parliament (EP) does not change the political nature of the bilateral crisis between Morocco and Spain, said Friday the Moroccan Foreign Ministry in a statement.

The ministry said that attempts to Europeanize this crisis “are in vain and in no way alter” its purely bilateral nature, its root causes and Spain's proven responsibility in triggering it.

“The instrumentalisation of the European Parliament in this crisis is counterproductive. Far from contributing to the solution, it is part of a logic of short-sighted political escalation,” said the ministry, adding that this manoeuvre, which aims to circumvent the debate the underlying reasons for the crisis, does not fool anyone.

The ministry said that the EP’s resolution was in contrast with Morocco's exemplary record of migration cooperation with the European Union.

“These are the very people who try to criticize Morocco in this area who actually benefit from the concrete and daily results of cooperation on the ground,” it said.

The ministry said that “no one in Europe can question” the quality of the partnership between the EU and Morocco in all areas, including migration and.

“The statistics are there to confirm it (since 2017 alone, migration cooperation has enabled the abortion of more than 14,000 irregular migration attempts, the dismantling of 5,000 trafficking networks, the rescue of more than 80,500 migrants at sea and the preventing countless assault attempts),” it explained.

“Morocco does not need a guarantee in its handling of migration. The posture of the teacher and the pupil no longer works. Paternalism is a dead end. It is not the punishment or the reward which induces behaviour, but the conviction of a shared responsibility,” said the ministry.

“The resolution of the European Parliament is, moreover, contrary to the spirit of the partnership between the Morocco and the EU,” it added, estimating that by trying to stigmatize Morocco, it is in reality the very principle of partnership that it weakens.

“It demonstrates, across the EU's southern neighbourhood, that even the oldest and most successful constructions can be the subject of untimely and opportunistic action in the European Parliament,” it said.

“As much as Morocco is satisfied with its relationship with the European Union, it considers that the problem remains with Spain, as long as the reasons for its triggering have not been resolved,” said the ministry, adding that Morocco had never judged the partnership with the EU by the yardstick of cyclical incidents but on the basis of reliable action that is part of the long term.

“The position of the European External Action Service has been constructive as regards Morocco's key role in the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and the positive appreciation of cooperation in the field of migration,” the ministry concluded.