Morocco becomes major recipient of EU funds

Moroccan government’s owned pres agency, MAP, indicated that Morocco has become the major recipient of the European funds earmarked for the countries of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), with an annual financial assistance of more than 190 million euros, Morocco. This EU aid to Morocco doesn’t take into consideration the catastrophic records of the Moroccan regime in terms of the human rights violations, not only against Moroccan citizens, but also against the citizens of the occupied territories of Western Sahara. The EU has recently granted Morocco the advanced status within the Union, which exceeds partnership but below EU membership. MAP, reported the head of the European Commission in Rabat, Bruno Dethomas saying that the union is set to beef up its financial assistance to Morocco, pledging that the northern African country is due to receive a sum of 654 million euros between 2007 and 2010. Morocco, on the other hand, has doubled his defence budget, AFROL news reported, quoting the Moroccan magazine, NICHAN. This fact, makes specialist wonder how can the EU provide such a country with all this aid, while it is listed as one of the worse dictatorships in the world, and is so far refusing to implement more than 100 UN’s resolutions on Western Sahara.