In August 2012, the Dutch government was the first EU government to state that Western Sahara produce should not benefit from the tariff schemes granted to Morocco. The statement was the result of parliamentary questions based on Western Sahara Resource Watch's report 'Label and Liability', which documents how tomatoes produced in occupied Western Sahara find their way to EU supermarkets stamped as from Morocco.A decade after it was first announced, the fate of one of Enel’s wind farms in occupied Western Sahara remains uncertain.
The legal advisory firm Global Diligence, which presents itself as expert on ‘heightened due diligence’, misrepresents international law in occupied Western Sahara.
In a hearing at the European Parliament earlier this week, lawmakers expressed outrage at how the Commission sidestepped them to push through a new agreement covering occupied Western Sahara, in violation of EU Court rulings.
As EU ambassadors give their green light to a new Morocco trade deal, the public is still denied access to the very agreement they are voting on - a striking case of secrecy in Brussels.