Morocco: EU Presses Morocco on Human Rights Record

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy chided Morocco for its human rights record at summit-level talks between the EU and Morocco, calling on the country to make progress particularly in the disputed Western Sahara region. “We also wish for improvements to the situation of human rights and their defenders on this issue,” he said referring to Aminatou Haidar, a Western Sahara activist who last year went on a 32-day hunger strike after Moroccan authorities denied her entry into the country.

The summit marked the first such talks between the EU bloc and an Arab nation. In October 2008, the EU granted Morocco ‘advanced status,’ an act that brings “the country closer to Europe than any other [country] from the Southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea” and “paves the way for Morocco to [integrate] into the EU market [similar] to Norway or Switzerland,” according to Joanna Sopinska of EuroPolitics.