Borrell defiende los esfuerzos de Marruecos para resolver el conflicto del Sáhara

The European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, valued on Thursday the "serious and credible" efforts of Morocco to reach a solution to the Western Sahara conflict. In a statement to the press, Josep Borrell declared: "We have taken note and highly appreciate the serious and credible efforts deployed by Morocco in this regard (to find a solution to the Moroccan Sahara issue)".

He added that "the EU supports the UN process and the initiatives of the Personal Envoy of its Secretary General to reach a political solution that is fair, realistic, pragmatic, sustainable and mutually acceptable and based on compromise, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions".

 
Borrell, in a joint press conference following talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Residents Abroad, Nasser Bourita, said that "the EU encourages all parties to remain committed in a spirit of realism and compromise in the context of an agreement consistent with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter." The head of European diplomacy said he understood the fundamental importance of the Sahara question, an "existential question" for Morocco.
 
Borrell, on his official visit that has strengthened the EU-Morocco partnership, held talks with the head of the government, Aziz Akhannouch, during which both expressed the joint willingness of Morocco and the EU to deepen dialogue and cooperation in the framework of their strategic partnership. This historic partnership has continued to develop in recent years, becoming a reference in the EU's neighborhood policy.

 
Bourita calls corruption investigation in European Parliament harassment
 
 During the appearance with Borrell, Moroccan Foreign Minister Naser Burita called the investigation into the bribery scandal in the European Parliament "continuous judicial and media harassment" and denounced that these attacks have "the will to damage" the bilateral partnership between Morocco and the EU. "It is a partnership that faces continuous judicial harassment, perpetual media attacks and attacks in European institutions, and also in the European Parliament on issues where Morocco is the subject of targeted questions that are the results of calculations and a will to damage this partnership" with the EU, he criticized. Bourita considered that these harassments come from "people, structures and media annoyed by a Morocco that develops, that reinforces its protagonism, and that projects itself without complexes in its African, Arab and Mediterranean geopolitical environment". 
 
Bourita insisted on the need to "nurture and immunize" the partnership between Morocco and the EU, while recalling that in the Western Sahara conflict his country measures the "commitment" of international partners through this prism. 
 
"The partnership between Morocco and the EU faces attacks. Morocco's position has always been to promote a partnership that has to be protected, a partnership that can not not be immunized.

For his part, Borrell expressed his concern about this case while asking to await the results of the investigation, in which Belgian police are investigating alleged cash payments and favors to MEPs, allegedly by Qatar and Morocco. 
 
"We are concerned about these events and the allegations are serious. There can be no impunity for corruption in the EU. We must await the results of the investigation," expressed the head of European diplomacy while calling on all parties to collaborate in the investigation. 

The scandal of the bribery network in the European Parliament, allegedly linked to Qatar and Morocco, and known as "Qatargate", broke out last December. For this case there are for now four defendants who are in preventive detention, among them the Greek MEP and former vice-president of that chamber Eva Kaili, and the former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, leader of the NGO Fight Impunity and alleged ringleader of the bribery network.
 
The president of the Moroccan government, Aziz Akhannouch, recently filed a complaint against former French MEP José Bové for "defamation" after he accused Ajanuch of trying to bribe him during the negotiations for the free trade agreement with the Maghreb country, when Bové was a member of the Foreign Trade Committee between 2009-2014.