On October 4, 2024, the CJEU’s Grand Chamber ruled on four appeals brought by the EU Council and Commission, supported by several Member States and Moroccan entities, against earlier General Court judgments that had annulled the agreements. The rulings confirm that the EU-Morocco Trade and Fisheries Agreements had been unlawfully extended into Western Sahara without the consent of its people, as required by international law.

In an Information Note dated 11 November 2024, the EU Council's legal service acknowledges a crucial legal precedent: the Polisario Front, the UN-recognized representative of the Saharawi people, has the right to challenge EU agreements that affect Western Sahara. This directly contradicts years of EU attempts to bypass Polisario and instead negotiate with Morocco, which has no sovereignty and no administering power over the territory.

The EU Council’s legal service concedes that the Court has reaffirmed key principles of international law:

• Polisario’s legal standing: The CJEU confirmed that Polisario qualifies as a legal entity capable of bringing cases before the EU courts.
• Violation of self-determination: The rulings stress that the agreements violated the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara by applying EU-Morocco trade and fisheries terms to their territory without their consent.
• Lack of Saharawi consent: The Court ruled that consultations with Morocco-aligned actors in Western Sahara were not equivalent to obtaining the consent of the Saharawi people. The legal service adds that the Court furthermore distinguishes between the people of Western Sahara and the population in the territory, and that “the majority of the current inhabitants do not belong to that people and a large part of the latter has been in exile”.
• Strict conditions on presumed consent relate to the people: the legal services explains that “consent can only be presumed if the agreement provides that the people itself, which cannot be equated with the population of the territory in question, receives a specific, tangible, substantial and verifiable benefit from the exploitation of that territory's resources which is proportional to the degree of that exploitation.”
• Lack of any benefits for the people of Western Sahara: The agreements benefited Morocco and European fishing fleets while failing to provide any verifiable or proportional benefits to the Saharawi people.
• Correct labelling of products: The Court also ruled that agricultural products from Western Sahara cannot be labeled as Moroccan, but as originating in Western Sahara, recognizing the territory’s separate and distinct legal status.

“For years, the EU has ignored the rulings of its own Courts, concluding its deals with Morocco covering Western Sahara as unlawful. Now, for the first time, the Council’s own legal service has acknowledged that the Saharawi people have won in court. This is a significant political and legal moment in the long struggle of the Saharawi people against the Moroccan occupation and the EU's complicity”, says Sara Eyckmans from Western Sahara Resource Watch. “We expect that the EU will now strictly act in accordance with international law and finally stops seeking new ways to sidestep the rulings. We hope that this legal analysis by the Council's own legal service signifies a turning point for the EU's approach to Western Sahara."

The Council’s legal service confirms that the EU institutions must now take measures to comply with the CJEU judgments. According to Article 266 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the EU is legally required to rectify its unlawful agreements, and to adopt safeguard measures against imports of mislabeled agricultural products originating in Western Sahara.

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