EU Official: Morocco is a ‘reliable’, ‘inescapable’ partner

The former vice-president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament (EP), Elena Valenciano, referred to Morocco as “the first link and anchor” of the Euro-African cooperation and as a “reliable and inescapable partner” for Europe.

In a tribune titled “What if our future passed through the South?” that was published on Saturday in the newspaper El Pas, Valenciano emphasized that “Morocco is the first link, the first anchor of this progressive integration” that Euro-African collaboration is going towards.

Unquestionably, one of the nations with which we have the closest neighborhood cooperation is Morocco. And properly so, given that Rabat frequently shapes the Euro-Mediterranean space’s strategy and the de facto interdependence that ties our fates to those of Africa, according to the former Socialist spokesman in the Spanish Congress of Deputies.

Morocco is familiar with the shared principles that formed the foundation of the European Union. “With Morocco, otherness often finds ways to regularly enrich the shores of the Mediterranean with the same ambition: that of moving forward together and that a mutual interest prevails, without any doubt at all,” Valenciano continued. “The difference in culture does not always correspond to a difference of choice or conviction.”

Before stating that “the multiplicity of the challenges we face justifies a review of the cooperation frameworks, to reinforce both their scope and their content,” he estimated that “the contexts have changed and with them the balance and dynamics governing the diplomatic vocation of our Union.”

“With Morocco, we have, perhaps more than ever, the opportunity to innovate, to set an example and to give new impetus to the meaning of history,” Valenciano said.

Read Also: Improved relations with Morocco raise Spain’s trade surplus by 34%