He affirmed that Polisario is not entitled to represent the interests of the local populations.

"Polisario is not meant to exclusively represent the people of the Sahara," said Nicolas Bulte, representative of the body that governs, under the leadership of Mrs. Federica Mogherini, EU diplomatic relations with non-members countries  and leads the Union's foreign and security policy.

The EU official insisted on removing any ambiguity on this issue, adding that even the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) made this clear in his opinion on the agricultural agreement.

 Similarly, according to Mr Bulte, in the last judgment of the CJEU on the fishing agreement of 27 February there is no mention of Polisario Front. This explains, he clarifies, why "the EU considers that Polisario does not have the exclusivity to represent the populations concerned in the context of a commercial negotiation".

Stressing the EU's doctrine of not recognizing the puppet entity or interfering in a UN-led political process, the representative of the European Union's External Action Service noted that "It has always been our position, it remains so and we are decided even more strongly today than in the past to support efforts by the United Nations in the direction of a pragmatic, political and mutually accepted solution as mentioned by the last resolution of the UN Security Council ".

Responding to MPs who insisted on people's consent to any trade negotiations with the EU, Mr Bulte explained that consultations were held with a wide range of representatives of local populations, including elected officials, civil society and various stakeholders, adding that "the United Nations have been trying for a long time to try to organize a referendum and have not succeeded because precisely this issue of representativeness is quite complex."

 "It is not up to us in the context of a commercial negotiation to realize that".

Representatives of the European Commission confirmed, noting that the identification of the Sahrawi population is a problem.

"The Commission and EEAS can not organize a referendum and say who is Sahrawi and who is not. Our responsibility is to ensure the benefit of the people and that's what we have done, " said a representative of the European executive.

Giving the example of the fisheries agreement, a head of the European Commission's Maritime Directorate pointed out that € 14 million a year goes to sectoral support, which mainly concerns the southern regions of the Kingdom, which proves that the benefit of the people is well established.

While the interventions of the various European Union officials before INTA commission stressed well-known truths, they confirm the growing awareness of the international community of the urgency of a political solution to the issue on the basis of realism reflected in the Moroccan proposal of broad autonomy, far from any bidding and manipulation by politicians or through a biased reading of the principle of self-determination or by making profuse allegations about an alleged "occupation territory "or" exploitation "of natural resources to the detriment of the populations.

-News on Western Sahara issue / Corcas-