The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, has been in Algiers since Sunday March 12 for a two-day official visit.
Josep Borrell will meet Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane. The official Algerian agency, APS, does not mention a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramtane Lamamra, announced on the departure by several sources.
Officially, and according to Brussels, “the visit will be an opportunity for in-depth discussions to consolidate and expand the partnership between the European Union and Algeria”. Josep Borrell “will explore areas of mutual interest covered by the EU-Algeria Association Agreement, with the aim of reviving or further strengthening dialogue and cooperation”.
For several Algerian media, Borrell comes as a “firefighter” to Algiers, in connection with the crisis between Algeria and Spain which seriously affects the partnership between Algiers and Brussels. Spanish media also refer to this visit as an attempt by the European Union to resolve, or at least alleviate, the crisis between Algeria and Spain.
Between June and October 2002, Spanish sales to Algeria were reduced to €155.01 million, compared to €784.9 million in the same period of 2021, a loss of €629.8 million. euros, recalled an Algerian daily.
Two days after Algeria’s decision to suspend the friendship treaty, on June 10, 2022, the European Union issued a statement criticizing Algiers’ economic retaliatory actions against Madrid, describing the Algerian move against Spain as “extremely worrying”.
“We are assessing the implications of the Algerian actions [including the instruction given to financial institutions] to stop transactions between the two countries, which appear to be in breach of the EU-Algeria Association Agreement, in particular in the field of trade and investment”. The EU statement goes on to explain that Brussels is “ready to oppose any type of coercive measures applied against a member state”.
The European tirade provokes, unsurprisingly, the anger of Algiers. Algeria’s representation in Brussels regretted “the haste with which the European Commission reacted, without prior consultation or any verification with the Algerian government”. For Algiers, it was regrettable that the European Commission “did not ensure that the suspension of a bilateral political treaty with a European partner, in this case Spain, does not affect either directly or indirectly its commitments contained in the Association Agreement Algeria-European Union”. It was then the turn of Algerian Foreign Affairs to react, targeting the head of Spanish diplomacy, José Manuel Albares – who had just met with Josep Borrell before the publication of the EU press release: “This unfortunate intrusion is the fact of a personality [Albares] clearly committed to the amplification of the theses of his national diplomacy to the detriment of the preservation of the well-understood interests of the EU within which Algeria is honored to have many friends and reliable partners and responsible”. In its wake, Algiers accused Madrid of implicating the EU, NATO and the United States as allies, implicating Russia in the falling out between the two countries.
More recently, in mid-February, Algerian Foreign Affairs reacted to statements by the Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission, Denis Redonnet, on the economic aspect of the crisis between Madrid and Algiers. The European official, visiting the Spanish region of Castellon, told local media that the situation between the two countries remains “concerning”. “The coercive measures taken by the Algerian authorities are very worrying, not only in Spain, but also within the EU, as they affect the common commercial policy,” said Denis Redonnet.
For Foreign Affairs, Denis Redonnet “knowingly maintains the confusion between the political and commercial dimensions”. “Of course, this official does not say a word about the obstructionist attitude of the Spanish government which is blocking the adoption of the priorities of the partnership, negotiated and finalized for many months, within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy, just as he remains silent on the irresponsible attitude of this same country, Spain, which exploits, in an abusive way, the rule of consensus to block the convening of the Council of Association, a statutory political body responsible for raising all questions, both political and economic than commercial,” continues a senior Algerian diplomat.
Asked this Sunday, March 12 by the daily El Khabar, Josep Borrell replied as to the “blocking” that would be operated by Madrid of the Association Council between Algiers and Brussels. Acknowledging that this meeting remains “stuck”, Borrell said he was “confident” to find “an acceptable solution” to unblock the situation. “We regret the serious obstacles imposed by Algeria on trade with Spain, outside the gas sector”, continues the EU High Representative. “This deadlock is very harmful for the application of the Association Agreement and does not serve the interests of either party. Borrell said he was “convinced that a solution is still possible” and that we “would have to work together to find one quickly”.
Difficult bet. Especially since, as official sources confided to Point Afrique a few months ago, “there is almost nothing to hope for from the Sanchez executive”, a way of saying that the crisis can only be resolved. ‘after the election of a new Spanish government at the end of 2023…
