Council President-in-Office, Mrs Ferrero-Waldner, this month expressed Council's full support for the UN Peace Plan for the Western Sahara region based on the holding of a free and fair referendum on self-determination for the Western Sahara, now supported by all the relevant parties - Morocco, Algeria, and the Polisario Front.
She emphasised the EU would contribute on a practical level to projects designed to develop the Sahara, once peace and a political settlement had been agreed. Michael McGowan (Leeds, PES), chairman of the Parliament Western Sahara Intergroup, flew to Algeria to meet UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to discuss the peace process.
