MEDEF-CGEM: Visas French business owners plead in favor of an end to the deadlock

“It is essential and urgent to streamline and facilitate the granting of visas for our Moroccan business counterparts. There is no trade without the movement of people”, just tweeted the vice-president and spokesperson of the Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF), Fabrice Le Saché. This statement comes during the Meeting of French Entrepreneurs (REF), which is being held on August 29 and 30 in Paris. A delegation of the Moroccan employers association (General Confederation of Enterprises, CGEM) is taking part in this event which announces the resumption of activities of the French government, of the French employers association MEDEF, and of  the business community in France after the summer break. The CGEM participates in this convention every year as a partner of MEDEF. On the eve of this meeting, the spokesperson for French employers published the following message on his Twitter account: “Morocco is a great country. The dialogue between our private sectors is permanent. We must continue to build common projects. I am very glad that a delegation of Moroccan employers is present at the REF 2022 (convention of business owners)” . A few months earlier, last November, Chakib Alj, president of the CGEM, had, it should be remembered , insisted during the visit of the French Minister in charge of Foreign Trade (Franck Riester) on “the need to remove certain obstacles such as the tightening of visa granting procedures since the beginning of 2021…” . The boss of Moroccan business owners indeed  alluded to the restrictions linked to the granting of French visas to Moroccan citizens. However, despite these various remarks, the French consulates in Morocco have multiplied the refusal of visas, including for businesspeople, journalists, artists, sportspeople, or even former ministers…! On the same subject, during his last visit to Algeria (from August 25 to 27), president Emmanuel Macron spoke with young Algerian entrepreneurs who questioned him in particular about visa problems. In response to a question about the restrictions, president Macron spoke of France’s desire to move forward “in the coming weeks” on this subject. It should be noted that upon his return from his official trip to Algiers, the French president announced in his city of Le Touquet that he intends to go to Morocco at the end of next October. It goes without saying that the issue of visas will be a priority during this official visit to Rabat.

A.R.