EU pushes secretive Morocco trade deal covering Western Sahara
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As EU ambassadors give their green light to a new Morocco trade deal, the public is still denied access to the very agreement they are voting on - a striking case of secrecy in Brussels.

01 October 2025

Today, COREPER - the body of EU Member States’ ambassadors - is expected to vote in favour of a new EU-Morocco trade agreement covering occupied Western Sahara. The Council of the EU is scheduled to formally adopt the deal before the weekend.

Yet, remarkably, the public still has no idea what the Council is voting on.

The draft agreement and explanatory memorandum are not available on the EU Commission’s online register of documents, nor on the Council’s public register. The proposal is being rushed through in complete opacity, despite directly affecting an occupied territory and coming in the wake of ten consecutive rulings by the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) that stressed the Saharawi people’s right to consent.

This lack of transparency contrasts sharply with the Commission’s handling of other sensitive trade files. For instance, the Commission’s proposal to suspend trade concessions to Israel was published the very next day, while Council has not even scheduled a date for its vote.

For Western Sahara, however, the opposite is true: the Council is preparing to adopt a deal within days, while the public is left in the dark about its contents.

The EU’s rush and secrecy around this agreement undermine not only the Saharawi people’s rights, but also the EU’s own democratic standards.

 

The above screenshot, taken 1 October 2025, shows the EU Commission's transparency registry, showing that the relevant documents are the only ones that are not published.  Download here the above website as of 1 October 2025, 16:05 in the afternoon. 
UPDATE: As of 3 Oct 2025 at 10:20, the website still shows no documents - download
UPDATE: As of 3 Oct 2025 at 18:10, the EURLEX website shows the Council decision BEFORE the proposal has yet been published - download.

 

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