Europe MPs Find Resistance to W.Sahara Compromise
The team led by Catherine Lalumiere, the Parliament's vice-president, said it had listened to all parties involved in the conflict -- which pits Morocco against the Algerian-backed Polisario Front -- and would soon produce a report with recommendations to Parliament.
"Thousands of families in and out of the Western Sahara territory have suffered from this long-standing conflict... our mission is to help find a solution and get out of the impasse," Lalumiere told a news conference.
Morocco claims and controls most of the Western Sahara, a sparsely populated former Spanish colony with a 1,500-km (945-mile) Atlantic coastline.
A 10-year-old UN-brokered plan for a referendum offering residents of the phosphate-rich territory the choice between independence or integration with Morocco is deadlocked.
Lalumiere said the delegation had found resistance to a compromise plan put forward by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, now UN envoy for the Western Sahara.
Baker proposes granting the territory regional autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. He is strongly opposed by the Polisario, which insists on independence, and by Algeria.
Without naming names, Lalumiere said in the Moroccan capital: "Those who refused Baker's plan are those who do not want a rapid solution to the conflict."
She said her delegation had met on Wednesday with officials and NGOs in Western Sahara's main city, Laayoune.
Earlier, the Europeans had held talks with Algerian government officials in Algiers and Polisario leaders and Saharan refugees in Tindouf.
Tens of thousands of refugees, who fled Western Sahara in the mid-1970s, settled in Tindouf in southwestern Algeria where the Polisario guerrillas have their rear base.
Lalumiere said her delegation's aim had been "not to disturb Baker's efforts...but to push for a solution for the dispute."