France Backs EU Appeal to Salvage Morocco Trade Deals

When questioned about France’s position on this issue, the delegate minister in charge of foreign trade and attractiveness, Franck Riester, declared that "France is a privileged partner of Morocco and we absolutely want to support all the steps that ensure the stability of relations between the European Union and Morocco. We support an appeal by the European Council against the judgment of the European Union court".

To recall, the EU court had annulled the agricultural and fisheries agreement Morocco-EU "while maintaining their effects for a certain period in order to preserve the external action of the European Union and the legal security of its international commitments," according to a press release.

The court had explained that "the effects of the two agreements are maintained", "because their immediate annulment is likely to have serious consequences on the external action of the European Union and to call into question the legal security of the international commitments to which it has consented".