Brussels puts end to controversy on marketing standards for products from Saharan provinces

The European Commission on Tuesday put an end to the controversy that some Members of the European Parliament tried to fuel about compliance of the control of fruit and vegetables from the Moroccan Sahara with the EU marketing standards.

 

In response to a question from a MEP on compliance control for products from the Moroccan Sahara, the European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski explained that the Moroccan authorities are responsible for this control and they are the only interlocutors of the European Union.

 

Wojciechowski clarified that, in accordance with Article 15.4 of Regulation No. 543/2011, Morocco is one of the third countries where compliance controls have been approved by the European Commission. Moroccan authorities are responsible for checking compliance with the marketing standards for fresh fruit and vegetables under their control and that these authorities are responsible for contacts with the European Union, the Commissioner explained.

 

Morocco and the European Union had renewed in 2018 their farm agreement, which explicitly includes products from the southern provinces of the Kingdom.

 

The two partners had also renewed the fisheries agreement, which covers all Moroccan territorial waters which extend from the north to the south of the Kingdom.