Morocco

Baroness Warsi Excerpts

Thursday 27th June 2013 Grand Committee

[The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, for calling this debate. Morocco is a nation with which we have a strong and enduring relationship. Indeed, as many noble Lords have mentioned, this year marked the 800th anniversary of the founding of UK-Moroccan diplomatic relations. We have heard about the first diplomat who was dispatched by King John to petition support from Sultan Muhammad Ennassir against our then rivals for dominance in Europe.

That first mission laid the foundation for the relationship that continues to this day, exemplified by the visit in 2011 of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall to Morocco as personal guests of King Mohammed VI. Those historical ties have allowed a frank and open dialogue to flourish with the Moroccans—with both His Majesty the King and the Government.

That was clearly demonstrated a little over two months ago, when my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary hosted a high-level Moroccan government delegation on a visit to London to discuss a range of issues from foreign and security policy through to human rights. The delegation was headed by the King’s principal adviser and included the Foreign Minister, Al-Othmani, in April this year. Some noble Lords asked what further visits have taken place. In 2011, the Foreign Secretary visited Morocco. In 2012, Minister Burt visited Morocco. In 2013, as well as the delegation to which I referred, the Interior Minister visited here, and only earlier this month, 11 Members of Parliament from Morocco visited as part of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy programme.

I have never visited Morocco officially. I have visited as a tourist seven times, I think. I have visited most of the country from north to south and east to west and have spent many weeks travelling as a tourist.

Several noble Lords mentioned values. The Government have put values at the core of our foreign policy, and so it is with our relationship with Morocco. Ongoing reform is essential, and I thank my noble friend Lord Chidgey for focusing both on those areas where progress has been made and on where further progress needs to be made.

The noble Baroness, Lady Royall, referred specifically to human trafficking. I do not have anything in my briefing on that but it is certainly something that has caught my interest. I will write to the noble Baroness, because I should like to know the answer as well.

In January, I hosted a seminar on something that is a big personal priority for me—freedom of religion and belief. The Deputy Foreign Minister, Youssef Amrani, participated in it and was able to reaffirm a strong commitment to freedom of religion and belief within Morocco. He gave me strong support for building a political coalition from different nations across the world on this specific area. The seminar also included discussions on early implementation of the new Moroccan constitution, which will bring greater protection for human rights while respecting the conservative and traditional nature of Moroccan society.

The question of the freedom of the press was raised by a number of noble Lords. We have ambitious and far-reaching reform programmes and we have already seen them happening in Morocco. We are working alongside those programmes as part of the Arab Partnership initiative. Noble Lords will acknowledge that this can sometimes be a difficult and sensitive issue, but Morocco’s record on this is much improved. However, there remain some challenges, particularly where the interests of the monarchy or the security services are involved. A free, independent media are, as we all know, one of the vital elements in a democratic society because they are able to hold government to account.

To further strengthen the scrutiny of government, our Arab Partnership programme is active in Morocco. It has provided support worth £1 million to reform projects that will enhance the Moroccan Government’s efforts to strengthen political participation and promote good governance and access to information, and encourage media and civil society engagement in shaping legislation.

Eight Arab Partnership-funded economic reform and job-creation projects are also currently under way in Morocco, underlining the importance of providing a job and a vote in ensuring peace, stability and prosperity.

Morocco has shown that it has the political will to improve human rights in the territory of Western Sahara and that it can play a constructive role. The UN special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, visited Morocco and Western Sahara in September last year, reporting an “emerging culture” of human rights and the political will to improve things further. That is happening. However, his report also contains tough judgments for Morocco and includes mention of a systematic pattern of ill treatment. The recommendations will, I think, take time to implement but it appears that they are on the right path.

We fully encourage and support positive measures to address these shortcomings and we remain committed to working to help all parties to reach a mutually acceptable solution to the Western Saharan situation—one that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara and secures the future of the large refugee population, some of whom have been without a home for more than three decades. This issue features regularly in contacts that we have with the Moroccan Government.

I am pleased to say that it is not only domestically that Morocco looks to support those seeking confirmation of their democratic rights. The Moroccan Government share our aspiration for a secure, peaceful and prosperous Africa. We have been working closely together on the UN Security Council on a range of challenging issues, including, in particular, that created by the conflict in Mali and the surrounding region. Morocco has also shown invaluable support and regional leadership in the continuing international efforts to bring an end to the crisis in Syria through its regional leadership on the UN Security Council and by hosting the Friends of Syria conference in Marrakesh last year.

The UK and Morocco already enjoy an excellent security partnership to address a range of shared concerns, including threats from terrorism, organised crime and drug smuggling. Our intelligence relationship, for example, is important and mutually productive. Shortly we plan to launch a strategic dialogue with Morocco that will focus on wider policy issues and enhance our co-operation on regional security and counterterrorism. Work to finalise the details on the frequency and level of this strategic dialogue is currently in hand, but the principle is there and I am sure that this House will support it.

Just as we have a shared interest in security, so the close links between our nations mean increased trade and increased travel, to which both the UK and Morocco are strongly committed. Last year, bilateral trade between our two countries surpassed £1 billion for the first time. This is a significant achievement. However, there are many opportunities to expand this still further, and it is in both our interests to make the most of them.

Therefore, I am pleased that my noble friend Lord Sharman was appointed by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister as his trade envoy to Morocco. My noble friend Lord Sharman is leading our efforts to increase the presence of British companies in key sectors such as education, renewable energy and financial services. I understand that the Moroccan-British business leaders’ forum could possibly be launched later in the autumn, but I do not want to determine my noble friend’s timetable.

I agree with my noble friend that there is great potential in furthering trade in Morocco. It is one of the best resourced countries in Africa, and trade and investment is clearly an area where we can enhance the relationship further. A number of examples have been referred to by noble Lords in the area of trade, and I shall touch on a few. More and more Moroccans are learning English for business and pleasure, as shown by the popularity of the British Council’s LearnEnglish website, which last year had more than 1 million hits. That bastion of Britishness—M&S—opened its first store in Morocco in February and is talking seriously about expanding further. A memorandum of understanding between TheCityUK and Casablanca Finance City, which has been referred to already, shows plans to develop Casablanca as a regional financial services hub. The memorandum was signed in October last year.

I am grateful, as I know is the Prime Minister, for the work that has been led by my noble friend Lord Sharman, and I look forward to further success in the initiative to which he referred—specifically on the development of renewable energy. A specific question was asked about solar energy. I know that in relation to renewable energy a contract has just been signed with a British company. I am told that it is a substantial contract to erect wind turbines. In terms of solar energy, I know from my own travels that almost every rural dwelling in some parts of Morocco seems to have a solar panel on its roof. I should be interested in how that works and whether there is potential for expansion there as well.

The noble Baroness, Lady Royall, and the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, asked specifically about the European Union-Morocco relationship. Negotiations for a deep and comprehensive free trade area between the EU and Morocco were launched on 1 March this year. The first round of negotiations began on 22 April, and a second round is currently taking place in Brussels. The main objective of those negotiations is to bring Moroccan legislation closer to EU legislation in trade-related areas and proceed to the gradual integration of Morocco’s economy into the EU single market. Morocco is the first European neighbourhood country to have begun this process with the EU and we welcome its positive attitude to the negotiations so far.

My noble friend Lord Sheikh asked about Morocco’s role in promoting and contributing to regional stability. I think that I have previously referred to the Friends of Syria conference which it hosted in December 2012; an increased level of contact that it has had with other countries in the Maghreb when there has been instability there; and, of course, it took over the chairmanship of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee in January 2013. The noble Lord, Lord Anderson, referred to other contributions as well. Noble Lords also asked about support programmes. I have referred to some of them already, such as the Arab Partnership programmes which look at fostering political parties’ place in civil society, more involvement of youth and women, and building journalistic capacity to scrutiny.

Finally, the UK strongly supports the process of transformation, institutional change and constitutional reform that is already under way in Morocco. Although there are areas, such as Western Sahara, where we will continue to press for progress, our relationship with Morocco is based on shared values—demonstrating, once and for all, that values of democracy, rule of law, human rights, freedom of expression and the right to a job and a vote transcend the boundaries of religion. Morocco’s move towards a constitutional democracy will lay the solid foundations needed for it to build greater security and prosperity. The UK continues to stand ready to assist in any way that it can.