Ua great opportunity for the green and digital transition”. This is how European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the European Union’s investment in Morocco of 1.6 billion euros for the promotion of the green and digital economy in the kingdom.
The EU is investing €1.6 billion in Morocco.
This is a great opportunity for the green and digital transition.
I hope that together we will realize great projects under #GlobalGateway, for the benefit of Moroccans. pic.twitter.com/rhjukkex4F
– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 9, 2022
The EU will develop a “green partnership” with Morocco, in order to strengthen energy cooperation and combat global warming, the President of the European Commission said on Wednesday in Rabat, during her first official visit to the kingdom. A partnership that “will allow us to engage together in the development of our greener energy“, she added.
“We are working on the development of a green partnership between Morocco and the European Union (EU), the first that we are developing with a partner country”, said Ursula von der Leyen in a statement to the press following her interview with the head of government Aziz Akhannouch.
According to the tweet of the European official, this investment is part of the Global GateAway program. A project launched last June in Brussels, which aims to strengthen cooperation in the fields of energy, the fight once morest global warming, environmental protection and the promotion of “the green economy”. It is also part of the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Special partners
The two partners have been linked for more than 20 years by agricultural and fisheries agreements that encompass the territory of the Sahara. For Rabat, the most important part of this partnership relates to the export of its agricultural products to the EU. For the 27, one of the main issues is the deployment of their European fishing fleet on the Moroccan coasts and the waters bordering the Sahara.
This cooperation was shaken in September by a decision of the European Court of Justice annulling two partnership agreements between Morocco and the EU, at the request of the Polisario. The EU has appealed the ruling.
In his speech on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the Green March, King Mohammed VI, addressing the “international partners” of the kingdom, had warned that “Morocco will not engage with those who display unclear or ambivalent positions any economic or commercial approach that would exclude the Moroccan Sahara”.
During her visit, the President of the Commission also met with the head of Moroccan diplomacy Nasser Bourita. She is expected this Wednesday in Dakar, Senegal.
(with AFP)