At COP22, beware of what you read about Morocco’s renewable energy efforts. An increasing part of the projects take place in the occupied territory of Western Sahara and is used for mineral plunder, new WSRW report documents.
Maps in a Moroccan propaganda exposition about energy infrastructure were this week removed from the European Parliament.
Lithuanian fertilizer producer Lifosa has taken in another shipment of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara, just months after having gone on record saying they would not do so again.
Yesterday, Saharawis gathered to protest Siemens, which is developing the energy infrastructure in Western Sahara for the Moroccan government.
San Leon Energy's controversial oil programme in occupied Western Sahara might continue with more drilling, according to company.
The Advocate General to the Court of Justice of the EU delivered a lengthy 70 page opinion on the Polisario-EU court case. WSRW asked Polisario's lawyer to clarify some aspects of the text.
The EU has fixed a map that displayed Western Sahara as part of Morocco - and has postponed further sanitary controls in the Sahrawi occupied territory.
The tanker Key Bay yesterday arrived Fécamp. French customs refuse to comment. We have the images.
The cargo on board the vessel "Key Bay", which arrives Normandy today, will allegedly not be tariffed, as France claims EU agreement with Morocco is in force.
Just as the Advocate General of the European Court clarifies that EU-Morocco trade cannot include Western Sahara goods, a massive cargo of fish oil is set to arrive in Normandy. "Piracy", says the European Parliament's rapporteur on the EU-Morocco trade deal.
"Neither the EU-Morocco Association Agreement nor the EU-Morocco Agreement on the liberalisation of trade in agricultural and fishery products apply to Western Sahara", says the EU Court's Advocate General in his Opinion today.
A chemical tanker is about to arrive France with fish oil from occupied Western Sahara. The Court of Justice of the EU last year concluded Western Sahara goods are not part of the trade agreement with Morocco.
All workers of a Polish state owned company in occupied Western Sahara have just been pulled out from the territory 'because of political reasons'.
The San Leon Energy/PetroMaroc study at the Zag block in occupied Western Sahara is delayed and the partners are penalized by Moroccan authorities. PetroMaroc's future is hanging by a thread.
The Canadian company undertook a airborne study of occupied Western Sahara on behalf of the occupying power.
The Canadian company Sander Geophysics has been deeply involved in controversial airborne seismic studies in occupied Western Sahara.
Kosmos and Cairn have renewed their licence - but did San Leon Energy abandon one of its licences? A new map from ONHYM suggests changes to the highly controversial oil exploration in the occupied territory.
Based on assessments of satelite images, WSRW has calculated how the plantations in occupied Western Sahara developed from 2003 until today.
WSRW lauches today a report on the Polish oil company PGNiG, and demands it to abandon its project. WSRW asks its owners to intervene.
Cairn Energy consistently includes occupied Western Sahara as part of Morocco.
The EU Court has now officially confirmed that five EU Member States will intervene in favour of Morocco in the proceedings to reverse the Court’s decision to halt imports from occupied Western Sahara through a trade deal with Morocco.
"The contract was not extended in December 2015", company writes on website. It has also confirmed that it has "no plans" to return to the territory, which lies in the part of Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation.
The day after Danish parliament urged all companies to stay away from occupied Western Sahara, a Danish vessel arrived Canada with phosphates rock taken from the territory.
The Polish seismic services company Geofizyka Kraków ignored warnings and started seismic studies for oil exploration in occupied territory.
Is it appropriate for the European Commission to change an agreement that is under judicial review?
Yet again, a fishing vessel managed by a Moroccan ex-general is dumping tonnes of fish in occupied Western Sahara. New video reveals the environmental mismanagement.
The Netherlands, which is against the inclusion of Western Sahara products in EU-Moroccan trade, seems unable to respect the decision from the Court of Justice from December 2015.
Morocco is spending most of the funding it receives as part of the EU-Morocco fish deal building up infrastructure in occupied Western Sahara. And the European Commission is fully aware of this.
All four members states of the EFTA free trade association - Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein - conclude in the same way as the Court of Justice of the European Union. Goods from Western Sahara cannot be included in free trade agreements with Morocco.
On 10 December 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union annulled the EU-Morocco agricultural agreement in so far as it applies to Western Sahara. The entire text of the judgment is now also available in English on the website of the Court.
One of the leaders of the protest movement of unemployed Saharawis, who for months have been targeting their campaigns against Morocco's state owned phosphate company OCP, has died after allegedly being tortured by the Moroccan police.
Scotland's Cairn Energy states that its joint venture with American firm Kosmos Energy has dropped the oil exploration licence in occupied Western Sahara, but ... that it is now reapplying for part of the very same area.
Dozens of Saharawis demonstrated in Smara, occupied Western Sahara, against marginalisation in their wealthy homeland. Several are said to be injured.
Two Canadian companies, Agrium and PotashCorp, were behind two thirds of all imports of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara last year. WSRW today launched its annual report of the controversial trade in Western Sahara's white gold.
The Official Journal of the European Union has published the appeal brought by the EU Council against the Court of Justice of the EU’s decision to annul the EU-Morocco agricultural agreement insofar as it applies in Western Sahara.
Several EU Member States have issued statements indicating their support to Council's decision to appeal the European Court’s decision to annul the EU’s agricultural agreement with Morocco. But why is that, really?
Today, the Norwegian government pension fund excluded San Leon Energy Plc from its investment portfolios.
One of the biggest purchasers of Western Sahara phosphates during the years of occupation, the Lithuanian fertilizer producer Lifosa, has confirmed to WSRW that it will halt all further imports from the territory.
In December 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union annulled the trade agreement between Morocco and the European Union in so far as it was applied in Western Sahara. The Council of the European Union has now formally appealed that decision. The reasons for the appeal are still not public.
WSRW has asked Morocco’s state-owned phosphate company to share the legal opinions that supposedly prove its activities in occupied Western Sahara are lawful with the legitimate owners of the territory’s phosphate reserves; the Saharawi people.
WSRW’s repeated questions on the organisation’s structure or financial backers for the contested event on occupied land remain unanswered.
"A hostile act likely to perpetuate the conflict and colonialism in Western Sahara". The Peace and Security Council of the African Union reiterates its position on the illegal exploitaiton of Western Sahara's natural resources.
The municipality of Gladsaxe, Denmark, has terminated a supply contract for de-icing salt due to its connections to Western Sahara.
"Coordination of Unemployed Saharawi demand benefits from the territory’s natural resources. Our resources can provide us with jobs", banners on the streets of El Aaiun read during yesterday's protests.
Coop, one of Switzerland's largest grocery chains, has announced it will cease to provide tomatoes from Western Sahara from 2017 onwards.
In December 2015, the US United Methodist Church announced it had divested from 39 companies. Five of those are involved in occupied Western Sahara.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has confirmed that it will not provide financial support to projects located in occupied Western Sahara.
Here's what happens to peaceful demonstrations demanding basic rights to work and a decent living in Western Sahara. As protests spread from El Aaiun to other towns, the Moroccan police responded with the usual ferocity.
As protests against Morocco's denial of the Saharawis' social and economic human rights have become daily news in occupied Western Sahara, eye-witnesses report a police siege targeting the hunger striking Saharawi graduates.
An American and a Canadian citizen were today kicked out of occupied Western Sahara. The two wanted to interview Saharawis regarding the US-Canadian exploitation of natural resources in the territory.
A New Year's gift of an estimated US $3,7 million. That's what Australia's Incitec Pivot paid the Moroccan government for its first 2016 shipment of phosphate rock sourced in occupied Western Sahara.
A heated start of the New Year in occupied Western Sahara, as unemployed Saharawi graduates step up their protest against Morocco's discriminatory employment practices by starting a hunger strike.
The French multinational oil company has announced that it is no longer pursuing oil search offshore Western Sahara. "More good news for the Saharawi people. We urge the remaining oil companies to follow suit", stated WSRW.
Danish-German Siemens Wind Power and Italian Enel Green Power have won the tender to construct five wind farms in Morocco. Only, two of planned farms are located outside of Morocco, and inside occupied Western Sahara. WSRW had warned them from taking part in the tender.
The European Union has appealed the judgement from the EU Court of Justice.
The decision to annul the trade agreement between the EU and Morocco was this week-end welcomed by the AU. "An important step in the global efforts aimed at ensuring that the natural resources of Western Sahara, as non-self-governing territory, are protected for the benefit of its own people", stated the AU.
Several Saharawis were allegedly injured in a demonstration in El Aaiun yesterday, in which youth demanded employment opportunities on their own land. Among them a 34 year old law graduate.
The EU-Moroccan agreement that was annulled by the Court of Justice of the EU yesterday was highly controversial even at the time when it was approved in 2012. Here is the story behind that approval.
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 decision in the history of the occupation of Western Sahara", states WSRW. Press conference in Brussels, Friday.
Former UN officials and Danish civil society strongly critical to the plans of Vestas to bid for controversial energy projects in occupied Western Sahara.
At the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Morocco’s invasion into Western Sahara, the Moroccan king delivered a speech that leaves no doubt about his colonial intentions. Major lucrative projects are planned, and those who oppose them “will have to assume the responsibilities for their decisions”.
