Statement by Commissioner Štefan Füle following the meeting with Foreign Minister of Morocco Salaheddine Mezouarby

European Commission

Statement

Rabat, 19 May 2014

Statement by Commissioner Štefan Füle following the meeting with Foreign Minister of Morocco Salaheddine Mezouarby

'Monsieur le Ministre, mesdames, messieurs, c'est un plaisir d'être ici parmi vous au Maroc. L'UE et le Maroc ont un partenariat privilégié et nous maintenons d'excellentes relations.

I come to Morocco to give a new impetus and ambition to our bilateral relations. My first message is to underline the strategic importance of the EU-Morocco partnership.

The Commission is keen to strengthen the political and technical dialogue with Morocco, based on our mutual interests and concerns and we have also talked about how to strengthen the political steering of that process. Our commitment to successful relations with Morocco is for the long term and for the benefit of all our people.

Since 2011, Morocco has undertaken many important reforms and has announced further steps, demonstrating a genuine commitment to modernization and democratization. In particular, I welcome the increased role of women in public and political life. I also welcome the announced reform on Judiciary, notably the reform of the military Judiciary.

Therefore, my second message is that the EU encourages Morocco to continue with the implementation of political, economic and social reforms in accordance with the legitimate aspirations of the Moroccan people.

I assured the Foreign Minister that we stand ready to further support Morocco and despite budget constraints in the EU we are striving to maintain a high level of financial cooperation reflecting the importance we attached to our advanced partnership.

We also discussed about the two important principles:

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  our continued commitment based on the 'more for more' principle: the more ambitious Morocco will be in its reforms, the greater financial support it will get from the EU.

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  and the importance of the inclusiveness building on the relations with the participation of the whole society.

My third message is that we see a lot of potential for further cooperation in the field of economic development, job creation and the development of basic social services.

As a final point I would like to thank Minister Mezouar and the many other ministers for making the EU-Morocco relation a "success-story" in the southern neighbourhood and turning it into terms of reference in the region.

I reiterated that we are, as committed today as at the time when we adopted the words that are the basis of our partnership and we stand ready to repeat that committed in deeds.'

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