Today, ECVC has sent a letter warning of the dangers of the revised EU-Morocco Association Agreement for European farmers and human rights, urging MEPs to take a stand against the revision and the delegated regulation proposal on origin labelling of fruit and vegetables originating in Western Sahara, presented today to COMAGRI by the European Commission.
For farmers across Europe, the proposal violates the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU, alters European marketing standards, and creates unfair competition for European farmers. The agreement protects the interests of large producer groups established in Western Sahara (and not the Saharawi people) and creates dangerous legal precedents which will have a lasting impact on agriculture and trade in the EU.
Farmers call upon MEPs to reject the agreement in order to defend human rights and the interests of our producers across Europe, in compliance with the CJEU ruling and in solidarity with the Saharawi people.
Read the full letter sent to AGRI and INTA Committee MEPs below and in the sidebar:
Dear MEP
On 4 October 2024, two judgments were published , by the Court of Justice of the EU affecting the EU-Morocco Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement in relation to the marketing of fruit and vegetable productions in Western Sahara. The Court then ruled that the Agreement violated the principle of self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, who have never signed any trade agreement with the EU, and established the exclusion – as of 04/10/2025 – of tariff concessions from said Agreement to agricultural productions from that territory and the obligation to indicate "Western Sahara" as their country of origin in exports to the EU.
Reacting to this ruling, the European Commission and the Council approved in October an amendment, through a legal adjustment, of the aforementioned agreement. The proposed amendment would extend the preferential tariffs granted to Morocco on products originating in Western Sahara and would facilitate their labelling without expressly indicating their origin in Western Sahara. These changes have been negotiated hastily and without transparency and are already being implemented provisionally, without consultation or waiting for their ratification by the European Parliament. We consider all this unacceptable, both in substance and in form.
In the field of labelling, the amendment is intended to be materialised by means of a delegated act of 16 October 2025, amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429 on marketing standards for fruit and vegetables. This Act, instead of requiring the mandatory mention of "Western Sahara" as a country of origin, would allow the use of the regional designations "Dakhla Oued Ed-Dahab" and "El Aaiún-Sakia El Hamra". This is contrary to the judgment of the CJEU (case C-399/22) which indicates that the territory of Western Sahara must be considered a distinct customs territory, and makes it explicit in paragraph 89 that the labelling of cherry tomatoes harvested in the territory of Western Sahara must indicate only Western Sahara as their country of origin.
This delegated act also violates Article 76(1) of Regulation (EU) 1308/2013, establishing an unprecedented exception in the field of import and export trade: the obligation to indicate on the country's labelling would be replaced by that of the regions, apparently with no other objective than to hide the origin of Western Sahara. We consider that this ad hoc retouching is an abusive interpretation of paragraph 4 of the aforementioned Article which empowers the Commission to establish exceptions to paragraph 1.
With regard to these proposals to change the "Agreement" and the aforementioned delegated regulation - we consider that:
- The ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU is not really being complied with, instead using a legal manoeuvre to try to solve it artificially, without really undertaking the necessary modifications to ensure compliance.
- The mechanism of origin marking on labelling established in this amendment, which allows Sahrawi products to be presented de facto as Moroccan, altering the European marketing standard (which establishes the labelling of the country of origin as mandatory), has been tailored to the needs of companies based in Western Sahara. In addition, a dangerous precedent is created by opening the door to other future cases, while European products must always be labelled under the name of the country. In this way, consumers are misled and unfair competition is generated for European production.
- In addition, the corresponding certificates of conformity of these products with EU standards may be issued by the Moroccan authorities, which is an unacceptable transfer of competences.
- There are serious consequences for the European fruit and vegetable production sector: the binding of the tariff preferences for Western Saharan production provided for in the Agreement will benefit the large producer groups established in Western Sahara (and not the Saharawi people) who compete directly with European producers on EU markets, which have already been displaced in many categories, varieties and times of the marketing season of different fruits and vegetables.
- EU farmers are already severely harmed by preferential tariffs granted to Moroccan products that do not meet the same production standards. With this agreement, they would also be forced to accept the application of preferential access to products that do not even originate in Morocco, without any negotiation.
- The EU has focused on protecting Morocco's interests – at all costs and as a matter of urgency – and has desisted from meeting any of the demands of the European fruit and vegetable sector, which has insistently and unanimously called in recent years for an in-depth reform of the Agreement, correcting all its inefficiencies.
In short, the two initiatives that we are questioning contravene the principles and values of the European Union.
Accordingly, on behalf of the European fruit and vegetable sector, we call on you to:
- Vote against this revision of the Association Agreement between the EU and Morocco.
- Reject (object) the proposal for a delegated regulation amending Delegated Regulation 2023/2429 on origin labelling of fruit and vegetables originating in Western Sahara.
We are aware of the difficulty of the context, of the multiple geopolitical factors that surround any discussion around the EU-Morocco Agreement, but that does not mean that we can fail to defend human rights, the interests of our producers or call on our representatives to do the same.
Thanking you in advance for your support, yours sincerely,
Morgan Ody,
On behalf of European Coordination Via Campesina
Tel: +32 2 217 31 12