El conflicto del Sahara Occidental ante los Tribunales de la Unión Europea

Abstract

With the judgments delivered by the General Court in 2015 and by the Court of Justice in 2016, the conflict in Western Sahara has become topical before these two regional courts in Europe. Although their legal assessment of this conflict is somewhat incomplete, imprecise, ambiguous and elusive - which is clearer in the case of the Court of Justice - both have recognised, as expected, that Western Sahara is a non-self-governing territory whose people have the right to exercise the principle of self-determination. Therefore, the two courts maintain that the Western Sahara is not part of Morocco; so that, according to the Court of Justice, the agreements that the European Union concludes with the latter state are not applicable to the former Spanish colony. In general, this jurisprudence can condition contractual and cooperative relations between the European Union and one of its privileged partners, Morocco, and may also have an influence on the foreign -legal- policies of the Member States, including Spain. More specifically, it remains to be seen whether this jurisprudence will be maintained even in the case of fisheries agreements concluded between the European Union and Morocco, which have been applied in the waters of Western Sahara during the last 30 years with the consent of both parties.