On 4 October, the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) was announced in cases [C-778/21P and C-798/21P] and [C-779/21P and C-799/21P], dismissing the appeals brought by the European Commission and the Council of the European Union against the judgments of the Court of First Instance of 21 September 2002 (EU: T:2021:640 and 39) concerning the trade agreements between the EU and the Kingdom of Morocco, which declared the respective trade agreements null and void.
The judgment reiterates that the Polisario Front is "a privileged interlocutor in the process conducted under the auspices of the United Nations with a view to determining the future status of Western Sahara", "the decisions of which are binding on all the EU Member States and institutions".
It also states that the agreements in question do not imply "that the European Union recognises the alleged sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over Western Sahara" and that the implementation of any agreement between the EU and the Kingdom of Morocco concerning the territory of Western Sahara must receive the consent of the people of Western Sahara and their legitimate representatives, under penalty of violating their right to self-determination.
The conclusion of the agreements with the Kingdom of Morocco, in disregard of the previous decisions of the ECJ, has caused losses to the Sahrawi people in terms of access to resources illegally exploited by the Kingdom of Morocco, which must be compensated.
In the light of these decisions, we ask the Commission/Council:
1. What steps have the Commission/Council taken to comply with the ECJ ruling?
2. The Commission/Council intend to enter into negotiations with the Polisario Front, the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, on compensation for the resulting losses and on the future trade framework for these territories?
3. What measures will the Commission/Council take to respect the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination, in accordance with the provisions of numerous UN resolutions?
João Oliveira
Ana Miranda Paz
Andreas Schieder
Estrella Galán
Giorgos Georgiou
Jaume Asens LLodrá
Rudi Kennes
Vicent Marzá Ibánez
Danilo Della Valle
Oihane Martínez
Hanna Gedin
Vladimir PREBILIČ
Ruth Firmenich
Maria Zacharia
Lynn Boylan
Jonas Sjöstedt
Kostas Papadakis
Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos
Pernando Barrena
Per Clausen
Dario Tamburrano
Friedrich PÜRNER
Carolina Morace
Gaetano Pedulla
Valentina Palmisano
Mario Furore
Pasquale Tridico
Cecilia Maria Strada
Irene Montero
Isabel Serra Sanchéz
Kathleen Funchion
Fabio De Masi
Mimmo Lucano
Ilaria Salis
Catarina Vieira
Oezlem Demirel
Matjaz Nemec
