[West-Sahara] Front Polisario wint rechtszaak

[Frank]

Correctie. En om te beginnen mijn verontschuldigingen voor het slordig
opgestelde bericht.

De uitspraak van het Hof is gedaan op het bezwaar van het Front
Polisario  dat is gericht tegen de associatie overeenkomst tussen
Marokko en de EU.
Het FP heeft gevraagd om vernietiging van de overeenkomst voor zover
deze West-Sahara betreft.
Het FP is door het Hof geaccepteerd als wettig belanghebbende in deze
zaak, wat de EU bestreed.

Er is overigens nog een zaak aangespannen door het FP bij het EU Hof
(Zaak T-180/14) vanwege de vis, in officiële woorden:

"Nietigverklaring van besluit 2013/785/EU van de Raad van 16 december
2013 betreffende de sluiting, namens de Europese Unie, van het tussen de
Europese Unie en het Koninkrijk Marokko overeengekomen protocol tot
vaststelling van de vangstmogelijkheden en de financiële tegenprestatie
waarin is voorzien bij de partnerschapsovereenkomst inzake visserij
tussen de Europese Unie en het Koninkrijk Marokko."

Die zaak is nog aanhangig.

Zie voor wijsheid deze bron:
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?td=ALL&language=nl&jur=C,T,F&parties=polisario


De Western Sahara Resource Watch heeft voor morgen een persconferentie
aangekondigd. Dit is de Engelstalige WSRW persverklaring:
                   -----------------------------

LATEST/ European Court annuls EU trade agreement with Morocco

The European Court of Justice has this morning ordered the annulment of
a trade agreement between Morocco and the European Union since it
includes the territory of Western Sahara. "A landmark in the history of
the occupation of Western Sahara", states WSRW. Press conference in
Brussels, Friday.

Press Release
10.12.2015
Western Sahara Resource Watch

The judgment was passed by the court in Luxembourg at 09.30 this morning
and can be read in full text here (in French only)

The conclusion is as follows (translated from French by Western Sahara
Resource Watch):

“The Council Decision 2012/497 of 8 March 2012 on the conclusion of an
Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European
Union and the Kingdom of Morocco concerning reciprocal liberalisation
measures on agricultural products, processed agricultural products, fish
and fishery products, the replacement of Protocols 1, 2 and 3 and their
Annexes and amendments to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing
an association between the European Communities and their Member States,
of the one part, and the Kingdom of Morocco, of the other part, is
annulled since it includes the application of such agreement for Western
Sahara” ["…est annulée en ce qu’elle approuve l’application dudit accord
au Sahara occidental”]

As the parties met in Luxembourg earlier this year, an important part of
the argumentation of the Council and Commission was that Polisario did
not have a legal standing in such a process. Polisario is indeed
representing the Saharawis in UN talks, the EU institutions said. But
they claimed this does not mean they can represent the Saharawis in a
court.

The judgment today (paragraph 114) declares that Polisario is indeed
directly and individually affected by the trade agreement between
Morocco and the EU, and that there is “no doubt” regarding the
‘recevabilité’  of the demand of annulment.

"This judgment shows how clear-cut the Western Sahara case is legally.
Neither Morocco nor the EU have the right to exploit the resources of
Western Sahara. No state in the world recognise the baseless Moroccan
claims to that land. If the EU wants to deal with the goods of Western
Sahara, they need to first consult the people of the territory, not
Morocco", stated Sara Eyckmans, coordinator of Western Sahara Resource
Watch (WSRW).

"This is a good day for the Saharawi people. Hopefully this will be the
first step in stopping not only the overall trade, but also the
unfounded EU fisheries practices which originate from the Franco era",
Eyckmans stated.

WSRW has followed the trade protocol since before it was signed. In
2012, WSRW published the report Label and Liability, going into the
implication of the agreement.

The former Legal Counsel of the UN, Hans Corell, has in he past said he
is "embarrassed" of being European, in the light of the EU's illegal
agreements with Morocco. The EU has applied Corell's statements to
legitimise their actions. Some states, such as Sweden and the
Netherlands, have been very clear that in their interpretation that the
FTA with Morocco cannot apply to Western Sahara.

Two other cases are currently dealt with in the ECJ. One is initiated by
the same Frente Polisario, regarding EU fisheries in the territory. The
other is a case initiated by Western Sahara Campaign UK regarding
labelling of goods -; a case which was forwarded to the ECJ by a UK
court in October 2015.

The EU is now in negotiations with Morocco for a Deep and Comprehensive
Free Trade Agreement. The EU has ignored all requests from WSRW to have
the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara explicitly excluded
from those negotiations.

For further comments or questions, contact;

Erik Hagen, board member of WSRW, tel +47 45265619
Sara Eyckmans, coordinator of WSRW, tel +32 468221440
Julia Finer, Director Emmaus Stockholm, tel +46 704880025

WSRW will hold a press conference in Brussels Friday 11 December at
0900. Place to be confirmed.




---

Frank




Op 10-12-15 om 11:57 schreef Frank:
> Het het Volksfront voor de Bevrijding van Saguia el-Hamra en de Rio de
> Oro (Polisario),Front Polisario heeft op 19 november 2012 beroep
> ingesteld bij het Europees Hof vanwege EU verdragen met Marokko die
> betrekking hebben op grondstoffen die de Sahrawi toebehoren.
> De klacht in het Nederlands staat hier online:
> 
> http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62012TN0512:NL:HTML
> 
> 
> Er is inmiddels een uitspraak gekomen. Het vonnis is in het Frans en
> staat hier:
> 
> http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=172870&pageIndex=0&doclang=FR&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=164110
> 
> 
> Frank
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>