Rabat – Deputy Director-General at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade Denis Redonnet expressed on Tuesday the EU’s “great concern” at Algeria’s unilateral blocking of trade operations to Spain.
“The measures taken by Algeria’s authorities are of great concern, not only in Spain, but also for the EU, as they affect the common commercial policies,” Redonnet told Spanish media during a visit to Valencia.
The official described the issue as “very worrying and complex,” and said that the EU will work with Algerian authorities to make sure the measures are removed. For him, Algeria’s measures are about “economic coercion.”
Algeria suspended a 20 year-old friendship treaty with Madrid in June 2022, following the latter’s mending of ties with Morocco and Spain’s support for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan.
Spain announced its support for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan in April 2022, putting an end to year long diplomatic tensions that stemmed from the European country’s hosting of Polisario leader Brahim Ghali.
Meanwhile, Algeria continues financing, arming, and hosting the separatist front. The country has had tensions with Morocco for decades, culminating in the severing of all ties between the two countries in August 2021.
The treaty had committed the two sides to cooperate in trade, as well as other areas like migration control.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares recently expressed his country’s concerns about the trade blockade, emphasizing that the decision was unilateral on Algeria’s part and that it is down to the EU to resolve it.
Albares said his country wants a relationship with Algeria like the one they have with other neighboring countries, expressing that the ties should be “based on mutual respect, mutual benefit, non-interference in internal affairs and that is guided by friendship.”
