Melilla Port Authority Urges Inclusion in Morocco’s Operation Marhaba 2022

The principle of free competition in the European Union does not allow a third country to distinguish one European port from another, as Morocco did last June by excluding Spain from Operation Marhaba. This is the observation made by Gamero during a meeting with the new head of state ports. The President of the Melilla Port Authority recalled that in 2020 and 2021, Morocco excluded the Spanish ports of Algeciras, Motril, Malaga, Almeria, Ceuta and Melilla from the Transit Operation, which recorded huge losses.

To read: Morocco’s Port Exclusion Costs Spanish Companies $500 Million in Transit Revenue

Based on this principle, Gamero does not understand why the port of Ceuta, with 4 million euros in losses, benefits from 11 million euros in compensation for 2022, compared to 8 million euros for the port of Melilla, which has suffered losses estimated at 7 million euros. "The port of Melilla must be considered a strategic port and the Inter-Port Compensation Fund allocated to it must be increased," he specifies. And he adds: "It is not possible that the smallest port has higher charges, because the passenger from Melilla to Malaga does not have a bonus".