Mediterranean Programme - [12/03/2006]

The necessary improvement in relations between Algeria and Morocco

The CIDOB Foundation’s Mediterranean Programme and the EuroMeSCo network organised a closed-door seminar in the Senator Hotel of Barcelona in which relations between Algeria and Morocco were dealt with. During the encounter, participants analysed the causes of the damaged bilateral relations between these two Maghrebi countries, the obstacles which impede an improvement in the situation, the actors that could turn this diplomatic problem around and the role that the European Union and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership could play at this bad moment. >> see programme (pdf 109kB) .

Beyond the traditional discussions over Western Sahara, the participants debated, among other issues, the relationship between lack of democracy and the political institutionalisation of the poor bilateral relations; the degree to which the foreign powers take an interest in the improving of their relations; what role the new political generations and the civil society will have; and the existence of anti-Moroccan and anti-Algerian lobbies in the two countries.

The seminar, which was attended by more than twenty experts, was co-ordinated by the Lecturer in International Relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Dr. Laura Feliu, who set out some ideas that served for reflection >> see document (pdf 97kB) . The act was also led by Álvaro de Vasconcelos, Director of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies in Lisbon, and Eduard Soler, Co-ordinator of the CIDOB Foundation’s Mediterranean Programme.

Among the participants in the seminar were MPs such as Abdelkrim Dahmen of Algeria (Movement for a Peaceful Society, MSP) and Mohamed Khalil of Morocco (Justice and Development Party, JDP), representatives of the business world such as Tarik Yahia, President of the Nador Chamber of Commerce, and journalists like NadirBenseba of Algeria and Ali Amar of Morocco. Also participating were Maghrebi, European and American scholars.

During the upcoming weeks, a report will be prepared, with the main ideas and recommendations that emerged from this encounter. The document will also reflect on the areas of work in which this kind of seminar could make a contribution to improving intra-Maghrebi relations.

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