Taib Fassi Fihri added, at a conference organised by parliament on the occasion of the Mediterranean Day, that Morocco's ambition is that the advanced status be part of a broader participatory conception between the Arab Maghreb Union (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania) and the EU.
    The advanced status is in no way at odds with the country's will to realise Maghreb integration which is a priority for the kingdom, Fassi Fihri said, noting, however, the impediments to such a goal, in allusion to Algeria's intransigence over the Moroccan Sahara.
    The advanced status is not neither inconsistent with Morocco's ties with African states as part of South-South co-operation.
    In this respect, the minister insisted on the need for implementing Euro-African co-operation,  recalling HM the king’s speech to the Granada summit conference in which he called, among other things, for launching “a truly strategic partnership between Africa and Europe, based on mutual interests, shared challenges and the need to build a common future.”
   Fassi Fihri also stressed the need to promote Arab-European dialogue, adding that Morocco attaches particular importance to Arab and Muslim issues.
    On the Sahara issue, the minister noted the European position “based on the need to find a final, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution under the aegis of the United Nations.”