Why Did Morocco Try to Join the EU?

Why did Morocco (a country in North Africa) once apply to join the European Union? Over the centuries, Morocco has had unceasing contact with its neighbours across the Mediterranean----from the Reconquista to more modern empires.

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Sources Consulted:
Miller, Stuart T. Mastering Modern European History. London: Macmillan Education LTD, 1990.

Miller, Susan Gilson. A History of Modern Morocco. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

[Clock_Man_]

Morocco: “Can I join the European Union ?”

Hungary: “Can I join the Turkic union?”

[Munin_Artthanaporn]

Better question would be why Serbia want to join ASEAN.

[Red-]

The short answer is Morocco was angry with the African Union because of the western Sahar issue.

[Chabeco]

Ironically enough, this argument could easily be applied to the whole continent of America due to their historical ties with Europe as a whole (The Spanish/Portuguese, British-English, French, massive European immigration, etc).

[cgt]

Morrocco: "Can i join the EEC"
EEC: "No, you are not european"

Australia: "Can i join the Eurovision"
EEC: "why yes, ofc"

[boneman]

Maybe the real Europe was the friends we made along the way

[Yanzdorloph]

It's important to note that Morocco did this after withdrawing from the African union in protest, and only joined back in 2017.

[rachelar]

Japan also wanted to join the EC. Australia took part in Eurovision

[derrazkhalid]

as a moroccan am glad the country was not accepted int he organisation seeing what it is heading to and the conflicts it got involved into, morocco is now a free pivot state with strategical and equibilired relations with the east the west and the south.

[uuuuuuuu-kocr]

I think that Morocco has a greater chance than Türkiye of joining 😂

[gzbxevj]

As a moroccan, i'm so happy that EU rejected my country from joining them, we have a very diffrent lifestyle

[octavianpopescu]

This is why I, as a European, love Morocco. They're bros. Everytime there's an African Cup of Nations, I'm rooting for Morocco. I was happy they made it to the World Cup semi-finals 2 years ago.

[oussamamarroqino]

A five minute video a'd you failed to mention the most important reason Morocco tried to join the EU which is Morocco's withdrawal from the African union after they recognized a a militia as a state

[deanstuart]

After completing my A-Levels in 1988 I looked into Interrailing around Europe. The interrail ticket covered Western Europe, excluding the UK, Czechoslovakia, and Morocco down to Marrakech. I only had a British Visitors Passport, which was cardboard, was valid for a year and could be bought over the counter at a post office. Apart from EEC and EEA countries the BVP also covered Morocco.

[abin_chi]

Morocco was ruling Spain and Portugal for centuries.
That makes sense

[leviackerman]

the fact that im moroccan and never heard of this is wild 😭🙏🏼

[JadenHawkins-oueq]

Africans like to repeat this fact to convince themselves that Moroccans don't like being African even though:
- Morocco would have still been in the African Union and only sought this for economic reasons as its biggest trading partners were Spain and France
- Morocco today has the highest FDI into African countries out of all African countries
- the King constantly reminds the "South-South cooperation", "Africa first" policy of Morocco's investments
- The country announced it will finance infrastructurers to facilitate landlocked Sahel countries's access to the Atlantic
- Morocco's biggest allies in Africa are all subsaharian and not north african (Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Gambia)

[myst]

As a Moroccan, i find this funny as hell

[luisfilipe]

The Morrocan claim to Europeanness makes about as much sense as a Norwegian claim to Americanness based on Vinland

[akrammenaceur]

Fun Fact : When Spain tried to join the EU, one of the criteria was to recognise... Israel. When i think about it, i wonder why Morroco wasn't accepted at least as a potential candidate.