The dossiers awaiting Macron in Algiers on 25 August
French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to the Algerian capital to meet with his counterpart Tebboune and discuss a number of important issues for French and European foreign policy.
Macron's visit comes at a time when tensions between Algeria and Morocco seem to be easing, which could bode well for the European leader, who carries a lot of weight in EU foreign policy decisions, to try to bring some stability to the region, which is key for Europe.
Macron's visit to Algeria also comes at a time when Germany is calling for the reactivation of the Midcat project, the gas pipeline that crosses Spain and France to supply gas to central Europe.
In this sense, the French president would have many cards to play and would try to convince Algeria's political and military powers to cease hostilities with Morocco and Spain. The normalisation of relations with these two of Algeria's neighbours is key to the success of the Midcat gas pipeline project in the best possible conditions.
Initially, the Midcat was to transport Algerian gas through the two pipelines linking Algeria and Spain. It was only in October 2021, after breaking off relations with Morocco, that the state-owned Sonatrach decided not to renew the agreements to allow gas to pass through the Maghreb-Europe pipeline linking Tangiers to Tarifa. Since then, the inflow of gas into Spain has been significantly reduced.
Spain has a key gas infrastructure in Europe thanks to its numerous regasification plants that turn the peninsula into an energy hub. France has always been against Midcat, but the German request and the war in Ukraine could mean a change in this trend.
A day after the Spanish Minister for Energy Transition, Teresa Ribera, announced that the Midcat project could be operational in 8 to 9 months, a Falcón 900D Air Force plane, destined to transport high-ranking officials and members of the Spanish government, flew to Algiers, where it stayed for around 6 hours.
Although the Spanish authorities have not communicated anything about it, the trip could be the beginning of a return to dialogue between Spain and Algeria, after the breakdown of the Treaty of Good Neighbourliness at the beginning of June, when Prime Minister Sánchez ratified the change in Spain's position on the Sahara dossier.
French visas
Macron's trip will also be a good opportunity to settle the dispute between France, Algeria and Morocco over the granting of visas to enter European territory. These visas became scarce from September 2021, when France reproached the Maghreb countries for not accepting back their citizens with an expulsion order from national territory, which applies to foreigners who have committed crimes or offences on French soil, as well as to people in an irregular situation.
The Maghrebi diaspora is very present in France, with which it shares a colonial past and often dictates and plays a major role in relations between the Morocco-Tunisia-Algeria triad and the former French metropolis.
The colonial past and new narratives of cooperation and cordial twinning will also be high on the French president's agenda in Algeria. A joint Franco-Algerian commission led by two historians was tasked in 2018 with proposing a series of measures and policies to write a future of 'understanding' between the two countries, none of which have yet come to fruition.
Algerian identity is largely built around the civil and independence war that separated France from its 91st, 92nd, 93rd, 94th and 99th departments.