New tensions in perspective between Morocco and Europe

New tensions risk emerging between Morocco and the European Union because of the Sahara airspace.

While Morocco has made significant progress in its negotiations with the region’s former colonial power, Spain, with a view to resuming management of the Sahara airspace, the European Commissioner for Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, declared that “the Euro-Mediterranean air agreement between the European Union and Morocco does not apply to air flights from the territory of a Member State of the European Union to the Sahara”. These statements follow a written question on the application of the Euro-Mediterranean air agreement between the European Union (EU) and Morocco in the Sahara territories, which a European MP belonging to the left addressed to him, after the announcement of the Irish low cost Ryanair to launch connections from EU countries to the city of Dakhla, in particular a direct flight between Madrid and this Moroccan city, reports The Independent.