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Spain protests to Rabat for describing Ceuta and Melilla as "Moroccan cities"

2023-05-31T21:21:25.278Z

Highlights: Foreign Affairs sends a note verbale in response to Morocco's letter against the commissioner who described the borders of the two cities as European. The annex to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the EU Delegation (Embassy) in Rabat compiled a dozen alleged "hostile statements" by Margaritis Schinas about Morocco and, he added, "the Moroccan cities of Ceuta and Melilla" The Moroccan letter has particularly bothered Madrid because it fails to comply with the commitment of both governments to "avoid everything that offends the other party, especially in what affects the respective spheres of sovereignty"


Foreign Affairs sends a note verbale in response to Morocco's letter against the commissioner who described the borders of the two cities as European


Border between Spain and Morocco, in Ceuta.MINISTERIO DE ASUNTOS EXTERIORES(MINISTERIO DE Asuntos exteriores)

New diplomatic friction between Spain and Morocco. The Spanish government has formally complained to Rabat for calling Ceuta and Melilla "Moroccan cities" in a document sent to the European Commission. Through a note verbale sent to the Embassy of Rabat in Madrid, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "categorically" rejects the language used by Morocco to refer to the two Spanish squares in North Africa and stresses that "the Spanish borders, including Ceuta and Melilla, are internationally recognized," according to government sources.

The diplomatic complaint comes after Rabat protested to Brussels on the 17th over the repeated statements of the vice president of the European Commission responsible for immigration, Margaritis Schinas, defending that the North African autonomous cities are Spanish borders and the European Union. The annex to the note verbale of protest sent by the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the EU Delegation (Embassy) in Rabat compiled a dozen alleged "hostile statements" by Schinas about Morocco and, he added, "the Moroccan cities of Ceuta and Melilla".

European diplomacy received with a mixture of "surprise and discomfort" that Morocco protested two years after Schinas first pronounced on the Spanishness of Ceuta and Melilla in May 2021, just after more than 10,000 people irregularly broke through the Ceuta border of El Tarajal.

The Moroccan letter has particularly bothered Madrid because it fails to comply with the commitment of both governments to "avoid everything that offends the other party, especially in what affects the respective spheres of sovereignty," announced Spanish President Pedro Sánchez on February 2 in Rabat. Until now, the declarations claiming the Moroccanness of Ceuta and Melilla had been produced by politicians outside the executive power, such as the president of the Senate, and had been disavowed by him.

The new diplomatic friction occurs in the midst of the tug of war to open the commercial customs of Ceuta and Melilla, one of the agreements included in the roadmap agreed in April 2022, after the audience of Mohamed VI to Pedro Sánchez in Rabat. That meeting closed a bilateral crisis of almost a year and was only possible after the Spanish Government changed its traditional policy on Western Sahara and went on to support the autonomy plan proposed by Rabat for the former Spanish colony.

So far, three pilot tests have been carried out for the passage of goods through the customs of Ceuta and Melilla. In the first two, carried out in January and February, a truck with Spanish products passed into Moroccan territory; and in the third, last Friday, there was for the first time an exchange of goods in both directions. However, there is still no date for the normalized opening of customs and Rabat drags its feet on the agreement to take daily steps and not just occasional steps to accelerate the implementation of the two customs. The one in Melilla was unilaterally closed by Morocco in August 2018, while Ceuta never had customs.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-05-31

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