Chahid ELHafed (Sahrawi refugee camps) 21 June 2026 (SPS)– The Sahrawi Observatory for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection (SONREP) on Saturday expressed concern over reports that the European Commission is seeking to include agricultural products from occupied Western Sahara in trade arrangements with Morocco, describing the move as contrary to rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
In a statement released Today, the observatory said the reported initiative, pursued under the leadership of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, lacks transparency and institutional oversight and disregards the separate and distinct legal status of Western Sahara as affirmed by the CJEU.
SONREP recalled that the CJEU, in judgments issued in 2016, 2018 and 2021 and reaffirmed in its final rulings of 2024, decided that no agreement between the European Union and Morocco may be applied to Western Sahara or its natural resources without the consent of the Sahrawi people, represented by the Polisario Front.
The observatory stated that including products originating from occupied Western Sahara in EU-Morocco trade arrangements would violate European and international law and facilitate the exploitation of the territory’s resources without the consent of its people.
SONREP called on European Union institutions to fully implement the court’s rulings and to end policies or arrangements that seek to normalize the exploitation of natural resources in occupied Western Sahara.
It further stressed that attempts to circumvent international law or judicial decisions cannot alter the legal status of the territory or legitimize the exploitation of its resources.
The observatory reiterated that Western Sahara is not part of Morocco and that its natural resources belong exclusively to the Sahrawi people. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
