EU-Maghreb ties: Reversing the old power asymmetry

Jennifer Holleis

EUROPE: Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, — often referred to as the Maghreb countries — are turning into Europe’s most important geopolitical partners when it comes to curbing migration and supplying energy, while maintaining regional stability in North Africa.

“These countries have discovered their leverage and bargaining power, which has enabled them to reverse the power asymmetry,” Isabelle Werenfels, senior fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), said. “The long-standing donor-beneficiary logic that used to dominate the EU-Maghreb relations has been inverted,” she added.

Matjaz Nemec, the head of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Maghreb countries, confirms this view. “Last year has been quite challenging for the relations with the European Union and the Maghreb region,” he told DW.

“Algeria is one of the few countries in North Africa where relations have not deteriorated,” Nemec said. “Our relation with Algeria seems somewhat stable and our energy cooperation has intensified since the start of the war in Ukraine, which is positive.”

“The increasing importance of the Algerian energy sector is a very big leverage that Algerian authorities have at the moment,” Zine Ghebouli, visiting fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said. LNG exports to Europe roseto 2.8 million tons in Q1 of 2023, compared to 2.4 million tons in the same period last year. 

The researcher has also observed that “the current administration [under President Abdelmadjid Tebboune] unlike the former one [under Abdelaziz Bouteflika], wants to benefit more from its partnership with Europe, which includes technical expertise and massive investment, especially in the hydrocarbon sector and across the energy sector.”

These could be crucial factors for the upcoming presidential elections in 2024. However, Europe “needs a stable partner in the region especially with what’s happening in Libya, Tunisia and the Sahel, as the entire situation in Mali and in Niger is starting to degenerate into a geopolitical competition scene,” he added.

Meanwhile, Algeria has been cracking down on dissent for years. Human Rights Watch reported in September that “Algerian authorities have crushed civic space over the past four years.” 

Ghebouli harbours some hope that a side effect of renewed relations with Europe might be more respect for human rights. “Algeria’s upcoming term [next January] as member of the United Nations Security Council and also the current term on the Human Rights Council provide Algeria with more leverage, but also impose higher responsibilities in terms of respecting human rights and individual collective liberties,” he said.

In September, Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to peaceful assembly and association, concluded a ten-day visit to Algeria with an appeal: “The government must loosen tight restrictions on assemblies and associations to bring laws and practice into conformity with the national constitution and international human rights law.”

Morocco is the only Maghreb country that shares a land border — the two Spanish enclave cities Ceuta and Melilla — with the European Union. It also is, along with Tunisia, the most frequented departure point for migrants traveling to Europe.