Sahara: Brussels is already turning its attention to investment

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, said in an interview broadcast on Medi1TV on Friday, April 17, 2026, that a lasting resolution to the Sahara dispute would help drive greater investment in the region.

Asked about the prospect of a stronger economic presence in the southern provinces, the European official pointed to the emergence of a political solution as a key factor in encouraging deeper engagement. “Stability is a determining factor,” she said.

These remarks should be seen as part of a broader shift now underway within the EU in favor of Morocco’s territorial integrity. On January 29, 2026, during the 15th session of the EU-Morocco Association Council, the Twenty-Seven backed “genuine autonomy” under Moroccan sovereignty as “the most feasible outcome” for the Sahara. Kallas herself reaffirmed that position both during a press briefing in Rabat on Thursday, April 16, 2026, alongside Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, and again the following day on Medi1TV.

Several EU member states have also already begun, to varying degrees, to translate their diplomatic repositioning into economic engagement. So far, France appears to have shown the clearest commitment. During President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Morocco in October 2024, projects announced in the regions of Dakhla-Oued Ed Dahab and Guelmim-Oued Noun were incorporated into a broader package of initiatives worth 10 billion euros, including a 4.8-billion-euro green hydrogen project near Dakhla. In May 2025, the Director-General of the French Development Agency (AFD), Rémy Rioux, then announced a 150-million-euro package earmarked for the Sahara.

On the Spanish side, economic stakeholders in the Canary Islands have already begun positioning themselves for the opportunities linked to the future Dakhla Atlantique port, through a business mission organized around late December 2025 by the Canarian public agency Proexca and the port federation Fedeport. Belgium, following its political realignment, explicitly signaled its intention to develop an economic presence in the Sahara. Poland, for its part, had earlier sent an economic mission to the Saharan regions, before the LUG group, which specializes in LED lighting solutions and smart lighting infrastructure, established a subsidiary in Laâyoune.

In that context, Kaja Kallas’s remarks above all formalize a dynamic that is already underway. In that sense, the shift is now clearly in motion.