PDA

Bekijk Volledige Versie : Marokko en EU willen verregaande samenwerking



Julien
21-10-06, 14:23
EU considers giving Morocco 'even more advanced status'

European Union Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, has said that the EU is considering giving Morocco a more advanced status in its relations with the Union.

http://www.moroccotimes.com/Paper/images/181005_Benita_Ferrero_B.jpg

"We already have a very, very close relationship with Morocco, and we're studying giving them even more advanced status," she told the latest issue of the weekly magazine "Newsweek International" which ran a four-page article on Morocco's booming economy and reforms.

Newsweek quoted Morocco's Prime Minister Driss Jettou as saying: "We want to be the southern rib of Europe." "In 10 years, we will be a fully-fledged partner in the EU family," he predicts. "When Romano Prodi [the former president of the European Commission] proposed his European Neighborhood Policy in 2001, he meant that we should benefit from all the advantages of the EU - just without the institutions.”

Thanks to the free-trade agreements now being negotiated in Brussels and Rabat, Morocco, adds Newsweek, will soon take a big step in that direction. According to the EU Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner, Europe also aims to bring Morocco increasingly into the fold on major political discussions too, including immigration, social issues, foreign affairs and terrorism.

This “deepening relationship,” as European diplomats put it, is proving to be something of a regional model by illustrating what other North African and Arab countries can hope to gain through EU cooperation, wrote the magazine, while observing that many of the countries that signed up to the Euro-Med Partnership in Barcelona in 1995—like Algeria, Jordan and Syria — have slowed intended liberalizations and remained outside the new European “neighbourhood”. Part of the reason, says Erwan Lannon, a member of the Euro-Mediterranean Study Commission in Brussels, is because Europe expected them to reform economically and socially—but without the “golden carrot” of possible EU membership.

Foreign direct investment into Morocco doubled last year to €1.7 billion (not including capital investment in property), with the majority coming from Europeans. Trade between Europe and Morocco was up 35% last year, and the value of Moroccan exports to Europe—including more high-value manufactured items like automobile parts, electrical cables and software than ever before—doubled to €16 billion.

According to Newsweek, Morocco's booming economy and improved living standards show that even without the “member” title, there are palpable benefits to linking up with Europe

http://www.moroccotimes.com/Paper/article.asp?idr=2&id=17321