El conflicto del Sahara Occidental de nuevo ante el Tribunal de Justicia (2024): Sobre la Unión Europea y el respeto del derecho internacional

On 4 October 2024, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice (CJ) handeddown three judgments in response to appeals and a question referred for a preliminary ruling, in which the interpretation and application of certain sectors of international law and European Union law in relation to the Western Sahara conflict were raised. The CJ has reiterated, as might be expected, that Western Sahara is a non-self-governing territory, and that the Saharawi people have the right to self-determination. However, it must be criticised that the CJ avoids acknowledging a wellknown reality: Morocco is the occupying power of this territory, having invaded it with its army at the end of 1975. In spite of this, and with good judgment, the CJ, on the one hand, considers that the Polisario Front has standing to bring an action for annulment. On the other hand, it concludes that the European Union, an international organisation whose founding treaty stipulates that it must respect international law, cannot sign an agreement with Morocco that would apply to Western Sahara without the consent of the Saharawi people. Although with a somewhat contradictory argumentation, lacking a legal basis in existing international law, indeterminate and incoherent, the CJ leaves the door half open for such consent to be implicit in the future, even with the express opposition of the Polisario Front.