Brussels (EU) 14 July 2026 (SPS) — In a press release issued today, the Sahrawi Working Group on Natural Resources and Related Legal Issues hailed the European Parliament’s latest vote on Moroccan Aviation Treaty while excluding Western Sahara, as a new legal and political victory, emphasizing that the formal exclusion of Western Sahara from the updated EU-Morocco aviation treaty is yet another undeniable recognition of Sahrawi sovereignty.
The European Parliament has formally approved on July 8 a technical protocol adapting the EU-Morocco Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement, signaling once again that the European Union does not recognize Moroccan authority or sovereignty over the territory and skies of Western Sahara.
Nominally designed to integrate Croatia into the existing bilateral aviation framework following its accession to the EU, the vote concluded with an overwhelming majority of 625 votes. The updated protocol holds profound political and legal implications for the decolonization struggle of Africa's last colony. which took place on 8 July 2026,
“By restricting the treaty strictly to Morocco's internationally recognized borders, the European Parliament has reaffirmed that Western Sahara is a distinct and separate territory over which Rabat has no legal administrative or sovereign mandate” Amb. Oubi Buchraya Bachir, President of the working group said.
The Working Group, established to protect the national wealth and its related legal issues, stated that this legislative step further solidifies the international legal boundary separating Western Sahara from Morocco.
The legislative decision obviously aligns with established European jurisprudence. In 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled definitively that EU-Morocco agreements cannot extend to Western Sahara without the consent of the Sahrawi people. It had also previously ruled, in a 2018 judgment, that European airlines may not use Western Sahara's Airspace. Because no such consent has ever been granted, the CJEU concluded that the aviation agreement is legally inapplicable to the airspace and airports of Western Sahara.
The European Commission has itself repeatedly validated this stance, issuing clear directives to EU air carriers stating that the EU-Morocco aviation agreement "does not apply to routes from the territory of an EU Member State to the territory of the Western Sahara."
On another hand, Amb. Oubi, regretted that while the law remains settled in favor of Sahrawi self-determination, the practice on the tarmac tells a story of systematic violations. Members of the European Parliament who voted against the protocol pointed directly to this hypocrisy, accusing the European Commission of turning a blind eye to European airlines operating illegal routes into occupied Sahrawi cities.
“Despite explicit legal boundaries, several commercial carriers continue to bypass international law to service airports in the occupied territories” Oubi stated.
Among these carriers Ryanair, The Irish low-cost carrier, is the worst. It recently launched direct flights connecting EU airports with the occupied city of Dakhla, operating entirely outside the legal scope of the EU-Morocco framework.
Transavia, the subsidiary of KLM-Air France, on its side has maintained flights into occupied Western Sahara ignoring the legal non-applicability of the EU-Morocco bilateral framework.
For the Sahrawi working group, the parliamentary vote is a vital political victory that reinforces the illegality of the Moroccan occupation. However, as long as the European Commission tolerates "pirate" flights by carriers like Ryanair and Transavia into occupied Sahrawi airspace, the rule of law remains compromised.
The working group reiterates that any foreign economic or commercial activity within the territory and airspace of Western Sahara, without the explicit consent of the Sahrawi people represented by the Polisario Front, constitutes a direct violation of international law and a complicit endorsement of an illegal military occupation. The European Union must now bridge the gap between its judicial rulings and its executive enforcement. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
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