EU Court Ruling on Saharan Product Labels Sparks Tension Between Spanish Farmers and Morocco

On the sidelines of a visit to Brussels, Andrés Góngora, representative of the Coordination of Farmers and Ranchers Organizations (COAG), met with representatives of the European Commission, Parliament, and Spain’s permanent representation to the EU to inquire about Morocco’s implementation of the EU Court of Justice ruling requiring the kingdom to indicate the origin on the label of products grown in the Sahara. But the responses from community officials do not seem to convince him.

"There is little transparency. They tell us that they are discussing with Morocco to modify the agreement in order not to violate the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling, which requires products grown in the Sahara to be labeled as Sahrawi and not Moroccan. They don’t go into depth, they limit themselves to saying that they can’t tell us more and that they hope it will be the case, but it sounds like hot air," he denounces to El Debate.

According to the COAG official, the EU is seeking to modify the agreement with Morocco to allow the latter to continue operating under the same conditions. "We have the feeling that they want to legitimize a trap. That is, since Moroccan companies have headquarters in Western Sahara, where they cultivate, and in Agadir, where they prepare for commercialization, we fear that the plan is for the Sahrawi origin to disappear in this process. This is fraud," says Góngora.

The leader of the agricultural professional organization warned: "We will not allow them to make hidden arrangements," announcing that if the EU Commission "makes a shoddy arrangement to satisfy Morocco, we will automatically go to court again. Legally, they are between a rock and a hard place." The solution envisaged by the EU in this situation would be to assert that "the Sahrawis benefit from the agreement with Morocco."