Morocco’s Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, representing His Majesty King Mohammed VI at the 7th African Union-European Union Summit (Nov. 24-25 in Luanda, Angola), highlighted the Royal Vision on migration and mobility.
“Migration is not a problem to manage, but a potential to unlock, a responsibility to assume, and an opportunity to seize together,” Baraka said during a session under the theme “Citizens, Migration and Mobility.”
As His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Leader of the African Union on migration issues, has rightly emphasized, “migration is, and must remain, a positive experience, a driver of development and mutual understanding,” he added.
Rather than politicizing or instrumentalizing migration, which undermines the ability to build sustainable solutions, the minister said, “Africa and Europe stand to benefit from making a different choice together: that of positive transformation.”
Baraka stressed that “it is time for the AU-EU partnership to align its political commitments with its financial commitments and to work toward opening regular, smoother, safer, and genuinely mutually beneficial pathways for mobility.”
To achieve this goal, he said the AU-EU partnership must strengthen support for continental African structures, starting with the African Migration Observatory, based in Rabat.
“This qualitative instrument must receive enhanced support so that Africa and Europe can base their policies on knowledge, anticipation, and analysis,” Baraka noted.
He also called on the partnership to intensify its fight against criminal networks that exploit human suffering, noting that “these networks, often linked to terrorist or separatist organizations, contaminate migration routes and threaten the stability of our regions. The response must be coordinated, determined, and multifaceted.”
At the same time, he said, legal pathways for mobility should be expanded, particularly for students, researchers, skilled workers, and entrepreneurs, “by creating frameworks that leverage African skills in service of our collective prosperity.”
“Our shared objective must be an African youth that can access tangible local opportunities while also benefiting, if they wish, from regular and secure mobility,” the minister said.
Baraka emphasized that regular mobility should follow a win-win logic, contributing to the realization of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
During the “Citizens, Migration and Mobility” session, Baraka addressed several African and European leaders, including European Council President António Costa and Angolan President João Lourenço.
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