EU fishing and farming deals with Morocco failed to include Western Sahara's consent, top court says

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top court ruled Friday that fisheries and agriculture agreements reached between the bloc and Morocco five years ago failed to include consultations with the people of Western Sahara.

Western Sahara sits on the Atlantic coast and has a desert rich in phosphates. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975, sparking a conflict with the pro-independence Polisario Front. The United Nations considers it a “non-self-governing territory.”

The status of the Western Sahara is among the most sensitive topics in the North African kingdom. Morocco considers the vast territory as its “southern provinces” and fiercely defends against anything it considers to be a threat to its territorial integrity.

In its definitive ruling in the case, the European Court of Justice said that for the 2019 EU-Morocco farm and fisheries agreements to enter force, they “must receive the consent of the people of Western Sahara. However, such consent has not been given in this instance.”

It said the deals “were concluded in breach of the principles of self-determination and the relative effect of treaties.”

The Luxembourg-based court dismissed “in their entirety” legal appeals by the EU’s executive branch and the council representing the 27 member countries.

The fisheries agreement laid out where European vessels with Moroccan permits could fish and included Moroccan-controlled waters west of the disputed territory. The four-year accord has already expired, so the court’s decision will only influence future agreements.

The court acknowledged that the EU institutions had launched a consultation process before concluding the agreements, but said this involved people who were present in the territory, “irrespective of whether or not they belong to the people of Western Sahara.”

It noted that “a significant proportion of that people now lives outside that territory.”

Morocco controls the vast majority of the territory under dispute, while many of its people now live in refugee camps in southeastern Algeria. Moroccans who have moved to Western Sahara from regions further north now outnumber indigenous Sahrawis in the disputed territory.

The Polisario Front's representative to the United Nations and international organizations in Geneva, Oubi Bouchraya, welcomed the ruling.

“The court sent a legal strong message to the political power and mainly France and Spain, that Morocco and Western Sahara are distinct and separate territories, and that Morocco has no sovereignty over territory," Bouchraya said in a statement.

“It is a big victory for the people of Western Sahara in their quest for self-determination and independence and a painful coup for Morocco and its economy of occupation," he added.

Morocco Foreign Ministry accused the court of ignorance and bias, and said it was entitled legal certainty regarding its agreements with the European Union. It further said that Morocco does not abide by "any agreement or legal instrument that does not respect its territorial integrity and national unity.”

In a statement, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the bloc’s top diplomat Joseph Borell said they would analyze the ruling but intended to maintain and expand the bloc's ties with Morocco.

FILE - Fish is displayed for merchants during an auction at the main port in Dakhla city, Western Sahara, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)

FILE - Fishermen transport their catch after docking in the main port in Dakhla city, Western Sahara, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Trump administration must facilitate the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to prison in El Salvador, rejecting the administration’s emergency appeal.

The court acted in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered Abrego Garcia, now being held in a notorious Salvadoran prison, returned to the United States by midnight Monday.

“The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the court said in an unsigned order with no noted dissents.

Chief Justice John Roberts had already pushed back Xinis' deadline, and the justices said that her order must now be clarified to make sure it doesn’t intrude into executive branch power over foreign affairs, since Abrego Garcia is being held abroad. The court said the Trump administration should also be prepared to share what steps it has taken to try and get him back — and what more it could potentially do.

The administration claims Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, though he has never been charged with or convicted of a crime. His attorneys said there is no evidence he was in MS-13.

The administration has conceded that it made a mistake in sending him to El Salvador, but argued that it no longer could do anything about it.

The court’s liberal justices said the administration should have hastened to correct “its egregious error” and was “plainly wrong” to suggest it could not bring him home.

“The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, joined by her two colleagues.

In the district court, Xinis wrote that the decision to arrest Abrego Garcia and send him to El Salvador appears to be “wholly lawless.” There is little to no evidence to support a “vague, uncorroborated” allegation that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was once in the MS-13 street gang, Xinis wrote.

Abrego Garcia, 29, was detained by immigration agents and deported last month.

He had a permit from the Homeland Security Department to legally work in the U.S. and was a sheet metal apprentice pursuing a journeyman license, his attorney said. His wife is a U.S. citizen.

In 2019, an immigration judge barred the U.S. from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, finding that he faced likely persecution by local gangs.

A Justice Department lawyer conceded in a court hearing that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. Attorney General Pam Bondi later removed the lawyer, Erez Reuveni, from the case and placed him on leave.

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Md., Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)