Key Third Parties: The United States, France, and the European Union

While they do not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, two close and powerful allies and providers of aid, the United States and France, vocally support Morocco's autonomy plan as a basis for negotiations to resolve the conflict. However, neither country adequately uses the influence this gives them with Moroccan authorities to urge, including publicly when warranted, dramatic improvements in respect for human rights in Western Sahara. The EU, which recently upgraded its already good relations with Morocco, should also keep the situation in Western Sahara central to its human rights dialogue with its southern partner.

The United States

The U.S. State Department spokesperson said on May 1, 2008:

An independent Sahrawi state is not a realistic option. In our view, some form of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only realistic way forward to resolve this longstanding conflict. We urge the parties to focus future discussions on a mutually-acceptable autonomy regime that is consistent with the aspirations of the people of Western Sahara …. Morocco has presented a proposal that we believe is serious and credible.[51]

US bilateral assistance, which had been averaging about US$30 million per year, increased dramatically when the government-backed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) approved on August 31, 2007 a five-year US$697.5 million economic aid package to Morocco. The package, intended to fight poverty and promote economic growth, was the largest grant made by the MCC since its creation in January 2004.

The State Department, when presenting the request for U.S. military aid to Morocco in July 2007, argued:

Morocco continues in its position on the front lines in the global war against terrorism and as one of our most reliable and closest allies in the region …. Funding is critical and will support public promises by high level U.S. visitors of increasing engagement with Morocco and help to maintain U.S. credibility, critical at a time when King Mohammed VI is providing significant support for the President's reform agenda. The country is a liberalizing, democratizing, and moderate Middle East nation undertaking broad political, social, and economic reforms.[52]

In 2004 President Bush designated Morocco as a "major non-NATO ally," thereby easing restrictions on arms sales. The move was taken, a senior administration official said, "in recognition of the close US-Morocco relationship, our appreciation for Morocco's steadfast support in the global war on terror, and for King Mohamed VI's role as a visionary leader in the Arab world."[53] Morocco is one of nine nations that belong to the US-led Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership, which holds joint exercises in the Sahara desert.[54]

The U.S. has at the same time actively monitored human rights in Western Sahara. It sends diplomats to the region who meet with human rights activists there, including those belonging to organizations that Morocco has not legally recognized. The State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights contains a separate chapter devoted to Western Sahara that is a useful reference on the subject.

The US also conditions a small amount of military aid to Morocco on respect for human rights in Western Sahara. The Consolidated Appropriations Act (H R 2764), which President George W.Bush signed into law on Dec. 26, 2007, provides Morocco with $3.655 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF). It states:

An additional $1,000,000 may be made available if the Secretary of State certifies to the Committees on Appropriations that the Government of Morocco is continuing to make progress on human rights, and is allowing all persons to advocate freely their views regarding the status and future of Western Sahara through the exercise of their rights to peaceful expression, association and assembly and to document violations of human rights in that territory without harassment.[55]

To date, the Secretary of State has not certified that these conditions have been met.

France

France also enjoys close relations with Morocco. It is the kingdom's leading trade partner and the leading source of public development aid and private investments. President Nicolas Sarkozy stated that France accounts for 60 percent of foreign investment in Morocco since 2000, and that 500 subsidiaries of French companies operate in Morocco, employing 180,000 people.[56] The French government states:

France is the leading provider of bilateral aid to Morocco, with 220 million euros given in 2006, totaling 53 percent of the total bilateral aid provided by countries belonging to the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development]. France's total contribution, including money given via international organizations, is 270 million euros, that is, 40 percent of the total aid coming from the OECD.[57]

France also backs the autonomy plan as a basis for negotiation. President Sarkozy stated before Morocco's parliament on October 23, 2007:

Morocco proposed an autonomy plan, a plan that is serious, a plan that is credible as a basis for negotiation….In France's view, what will permit a resolution to this conflict that has gone on too long is a political solution, negotiated and agreed to by the two parties under UN auspices .… Morocco's autonomy plan exists; it is on the table and constitutes a new proposal after years of deadlock. I hope to see Morocco's autonomy plan serve as the basis of negotiation in the search for a reasonable resolution. France will be at your side.[58]

French Prime Minister François Fillon stated in a speech he gave in Morocco on April 17, 2008, "I wish to underscore just how much France supports Morocco's initiatives to resolve the painful issue of the Sahara, and just how much France does to explain Morocco's initiatives at the United Nations."[59]

France has rarely if ever publicly criticized Morocco on human rights grounds in recent years, not with respect to Western Sahara or any other issue. President Sarkozy has praised the kingdom's human rights progress, evoking on his first visit as head of state on October 23, 2007, the "pluralism and openness" that "this democratic Morocco" is "experiencing today." And when Morocco summarily expelled a delegation representing French human rights and solidarity organizations in April 2008, French authorities declined to criticize the measure. In a letter dated May 14, 2008 and sent to Pierre-Alain Roussel, one of the four who were expelled, Nathalie Loiseau, director at the time of the North Africa desk at the Foreign Ministry, wrote, "It appears that Moroccan authorities considered your presence to create a risk of disturbing the public order. Since this was the sovereign decision taken by a foreign power, France naturally has no business to comment on it."[60]

The European Union

The EU enjoys good relations with Morocco and, on October 13, 2008, voted to upgrade the partnership by giving Morocco "advanced status," placing it a notch above other members of the EU's "neighborhood policy," such as Egypt and Israel. The upgraded status is intended to involve "cooperation in political and security matters, the preparation of a comprehensive and deeper free trade agreement, the gradual integration of Morocco into a number of EU sectoral policies, and the development of people-to-people exchanges." These measures are, according to the EU, "intended to provide material support for the modernisation and democratic transition process that Morocco has been engaged in for a number of years and for which Morocco is requesting more substantial backing from Europe."[61]

The EU's Morocco "strategy paper" for 2007-2013 notes:

The EU is Morocco's most important export market, its leading public and private external investor and its most important tourist market. Morocco also contributes to the EU's energy security as a strategic transit country for Algerian gas and as an exporter of electricity to Spain. Human exchanges are constantly expanding: the EU is the main destination of Moroccan migrant workers and an increasing number of Europeans choose Morocco as a place for holidays or even residence.

The EU committed 1.3 billion euros in aid to Morocco through its MEDA 1 and MEDA 2 programs from 1996 to 2004.[62] MEDA was, until its phasing out, the principal instrument of economic and financial cooperation under the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. Morocco is currently the biggest beneficiary of its successor program, the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, with 654 million euros earmarked for 2007-2010.[63]

An EU-Morocco association agreement has been in effect since 2000. The agreement, which provides for trade liberalization and a framework for political relations and cooperation in various sectors, underscores the importance of human rights in its preamble and in Article 2.[64]

The EU-Morocco association agreement established a bilateral "association council" at which the two sides meet regularly at the ministerial level. That council has a Human Rights, Democratization, and Governance subcommittee that has met three times.

Following the October 13, 2008 meeting of the Association Council, the EU issued a long statement announcing the upgrade in its relations with Morocco. While praising Morocco for progress in many areas of human rights, the EU also "renew[ed] its appeal made during the previous session of the Association Council that Morocco ensure respect for freedom of expression and the protection of sources, and to reform again the Press Code and the Penal Code by decriminalizing offenses of opinion." The EU also invited Morocco "to safeguard freedom of association and assembly, notably in the territory of Western Sahara," and called upon "the forces of authority [sic] to show restraint in the recourse to force." [65]