WRITTEN QUESTION E-2715/01

by Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 October 2001)

Subject: EU Kingdom of Morocco relations

In his reply to my question E-2355/01(1), Commissioner Patten refers me to his answer to written question E-1228/01(2). In that reply, Commissioner Patten observes that The Commission and the Kingdom of Morocco signed an Association Agreement which came into force on 1 March 2000. Its long-term aid is the creation of a free trade area between both parties. The dismantling of tariffs linked to the Agreement's implementation will mean on the one hand the gradual opening up of the Moroccan market, which will be advantageous to Community operators, and on the other hand, will require a major effort by Moroccan producers to cope with Europrean competition. The MEDA Programme was developed to help Morocco improve its economy during the transition towards free trade. Nevertheless, it is important to remember in this context that since the Association Agreement came into force, the dismantling of tariffs has meant a short-term reduction in the Moroccan annual budget, which the MEDA Programme barely offsets as a result of the limited Community funding available for cooperation with other countries.

This reply leaves me speechless with surprise at the Commission's utter failure to make any reference to the special conditions and preferential treatment enjoyed by Moroccan exports to the European Union of agricultural and fishery products, inter alia, within the framework of the Association Agreement. The reply gives the impression that the Agreement benefits only the EU, and represents a major sacrifice on the part of Morocco. Nor is there any reference to the substantial financial compensation which the EU offered the Kingdom of Morocco with a view to securing renewal of the Fishery Agreement, quite apart from the aid it was already receiving and continues to receive under MEDA.

1. Can the Commission state the global annual amount which the Kingdom of Morocco has received and will continue to receive within the framework of the current MEDA Programme, what the purpose of these payments is and which areas they are to be spent in?

2. What is the rate of take-up of this annual amount to date?

3. What are the details of the conditions and the preferential treatment to be given, within the EU, to Moroccan exports of agricultural and fishery products under the Association Agreement?

(1) OJ C 350 E, 11.12.2001, p. 239.

(2) OJ C 318 E, 13.11.2001, p. 225.

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(15 November 2001)

The Association Agreement with Morocco which came into force on 1 March 2000 aims to implement the objectives of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, which were defined in Barcelona in 1995 and set out in more detail at the Marseilles Fourth Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Foreign Ministers in November 2000. The purpose of economic cooperation with Mediterranean partners is not to set up bilateral financial compensation mechanisms but to establish a regional free trade area.

In the case of Morocco, implementing the Association Agreement (the main bilateral cooperation framework for the MEDA programme) does not entail any financial compensation for possible losses incurred as a result of the risks involved in negotiating the Fishery Agreement.

For the period 1995-2000, projects committed under MEDA and the Morocco Protocol totalled 796,6 million.

For 2000, the figure was140,6 million, divided among the following priority areas:

- 52 million for financial sector adjustment,

- 50 million for health sector adjustment,

- 27,6 million for the modernisation of the law courts,

- 9 million for participatory rural development in Khenifra,

- 1,9 million for solid waste management in Essaouira.

For 1995 to 1999 (launching of the MEDA programme), the commitment/payment ratio was 20,9 %, and for the year 2000, 28 %.

As regards agriculture, the Association Agreement contains a review clause in Article 16, which states that the Community and Morocco shall gradually implement greater liberalisation of their reciprocal trade in agricultural and fishery products.

At the meeting of the EU-Morocco Association Council in Luxembourg on 9 October 2001, both parties declared that the renegotiation of the agriculture Protocols should move into an active phase and be concluded before the end of 2002. Consequently, at this stage, it is premature and inadvisable to describe the possible preferential conditions which could apply to Morocco.

The Honourable Member refers to the existing preferences. These are laid out exhaustively in Protocol 1 to the Council and Commission Decision on the conclusion of the EU-Morocco Association Agreement(1).

(1) OJ L 70, 18.3.2000.