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On the occasion of the 12th session of the Morocco-EU Association Council held on Tuesday, December 16^th 2014, in Brussels, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mr. Salaheddine Mezouar, and the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mrs. Mbarka Bouaida, presented before the Association Council’s members the process of political, economic and human rights reforms, undertaken by Morocco within the framework of the 2011 Constitution.

The meeting was an opportunity to review issues of common interest, notably, the situation in the Maghreb region, the Sahel and the Middle East, and also the threat of terrorism in its various manifestations and sources.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation underlined, in this regard, the effectiveness of the multi-dimensional approach in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel region, calling  the European Union to coordinate its efforts with those of Morocco, which is a key player in this field.

Mr. Mezouar also commended the excellent bilateral relations between the two sides, calling for a strategic partnership that could be a model for North-South relations.

Mr. Mezouar stressed that under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God assist him, Morocco adopted the new generation of human rights, in its universal dimension,  that  was  crowned by the  Constitution of 2011, which implemented fundamental guarantees in the field of individual and collective freedoms, and by the involvement of the Government by implementing organic laws supplementing the Constitution, stressing that Morocco thus deserves to be a model in  the region and to have the respect and trust of its partners, notably, the European Union.

Mr. Mezouar and Mrs. Bouaida raised the Moroccan Sahara issue during the bilateral talks with Mrs. Mogherini.

In this regard, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation indicated that Morocco will launch soon the advanced regionalization project, stating that Morocco’s support for a negotiated political solution did not have the consent from the other parts.

He also noted that Morocco remains intransigent on the need to respect principles and parameters of the negotiation, on the basis of the autonomy initiative which is the maximum Morocco can offer, as His Majesty the King Mohammed VI has underlined in his last Green March speech.

For her part, Mrs. Mbarka Bouaida presented the human rights bodies implemented by Morocco for the promotion of human rights and the efforts made by Morocco within the framework of the multilateral partnership with African countries and the role the EU could play in its success.

The Minister Delegate, furthermore, highlighted, the main axes of Morocco-EU Association Council related to economic, social, emigration and mobility fields, including facilitating visa procedures and implementing EU's commitments vis-à-vis Morocco for the creation of the Euro-Mediterranean University in Fez and for EU’s support to the privileged partnership and to the efforts for development and to priority projects within the framework of the advanced status granted to Morocco in 2008.

For her part, The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mrs. Federica Mogherini, welcomed the remarkable progress made by Morocco in political and human rights’ fields, demonstrated by the reform of the Code of Military Justice, and guarantees of freedom of speech and women's rights and other areas of individual and collective fundamental freedoms, as well as economic reforms that have allowed Morocco to ensure an economic dynamism despite external constraints.

Mrs. Mogherni also commended the quality of bilateral relations between Morocco and the European Union on political and economic levels, considering that Morocco is a key, reliable and exemplary partner in the region, on which the EU can rely to contribute to stability and to promote values of peace and democracy and to support efforts to fight against terrorism and extremism.

MAEC