Lawmakers in the European Parliament have endorsed an updated agreement on air services between the European Union and Morocco, explicitly omitting Western Sahara from its provisions. This decision aligns with rulings from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which has consistently defined the territory as “separate” and “distinct” from Morocco’s internationally recognized borders.

The revised protocol, approved on July 8, expands the original 2006 air transport accord to include Croatia—an EU member since July 1, 2013—while preserving its core terms. Crucially, the exclusion of Western Sahara reinforces the EU’s stance on the region’s disputed status, signaling that no Moroccan sovereignty or administrative control exists over the territory.

A coalition of Sahrawi legal and resource advocates hailed the vote as a landmark affirmation of Western Sahara’s autonomy. The Sahrawi Working Group on Natural Resources and Legal Affairs issued a statement calling the decision “an undeniable legal and political victory”, emphasizing that the updated treaty now strictly adheres to Morocco’s recognized borders.

Oubi Bouchraya Bachir, the group’s ambassador and chairperson, underscored the significance: “By confining the agreement within Morocco’s internationally accepted frontiers, the European Parliament has made it clear that Western Sahara remains a territory without Moroccan jurisdiction.”

The Western Sahara Resource Watch, an independent monitoring body, also welcomed the move, clarifying that the protocol’s amendments are technical, aimed solely at accommodating Croatia’s EU accession. Their communiqué noted that the CJEU’s 2018 ruling had already established that EU-Morocco agreements cannot extend to Western Sahara, a position later confirmed by the European Commission to air carriers.

In practical terms, this means flights between EU states and Western Sahara remain outside the scope of the updated accord, in full compliance with EU jurisprudence.