Green fertilizers and hydrogen can reset EU-Morocco ties

The recent crisis at Ceuta, the Spanish city that borders Morocco on the North African coast, is more than a migration story. It is also a reminder of the economic gap across the Mediterranean. The images should prompt a broader question: Does Europe want a relationship centered on fences, patrols and short-term migration deals, or one built around shared economic interests?

Rather than retreating from cooperation, Brussels should use the Pact for the Mediterranean to build in the areas where European and Moroccan interests genuinely overlap: investments in fertilizers and green hydrogen.

Common ground

Fertilizers are a good place to start: They are essential to food security, and high energy prices have weakened European production while deepening the continent’s dependence on external suppliers, including Russia.

Morocco is already a major supplier to Europe, accounting for 19% of European Union fertilizer imports in the third quarter of 2025. It also holds around 68% of the world’s reserve of phosphate, the mineral at the base of most fertilizer production.

Yet some of these reserves lie in Western Sahara, a disputed territory where a subsidiary of the state-owned OCP Group operates, adding political and legal sensitivity to the sector.

A second vulnerability runs through Morocco’s fertilizer industry and concerns energy supply.

Phosphate-based fertilizers require ammonia, which the country still largely imports in carbon-intensive form. In 2024, Saudi Arabia and Qatar together accounted for roughly one-third of Morocco’s ammonia imports by value, exposing the industry to geopolitical tensions and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

Rabat could reduce this dependency by drawing on its solar and wind resources to produce green hydrogen, then converting it into green ammonia for fertilizer production.

European policymakers have already devoted considerable attention to green hydrogen in Morocco, and Global Gateway includes plans for large-scale green ammonia production. The next step is to connect these efforts more directly to Morocco’s fertilizer industry.

This could create more value than exporting hydrogen to Europe.

Hydrogen remains difficult and expensive to transport over long distances, so converting it into ammonia or using it directly in fertilizer production is the more practical route.

That approach could help decarbonize a strategic Moroccan industry while giving Europe a more resilient supply of lower-carbon fertilizers.

Yet, such diversification should complement, not replace, efforts to strengthen Europe’s own fertilizer production.

Rerouting the EU-Morocco relationship

Green ammonia is no silver bullet. On its own, it will not resolve Morocco’s unemployment problem or halt migration to Europe.

Large-scale hydrogen production would place additional pressure on water in a country already facing severe water stress. OCP has also drawn criticism over pollution and the effects of its operations on local communities.

At the same time, European-backed projects involving Western Sahara need to respect the territory’s distinct legal status and the legal requirements concerning Sahrawi consent and tangible benefits, without prejudging its final status.

The European Court of Justice has annulled EU-Morocco trade arrangements applying to the territory where these conditions were not met.

Nevertheless, the approach is worth pursuing.

It would be a smart use of the EU’s external spending: supporting Rabat’s sustainable industrial development while advancing European strategic interests in food security, energy resilience and supply-chain diversification.

As the EU negotiates the proposed €200 billion Global Europe Instrument for 2028-2034, this is the balance it should seek.

Development cooperation can contribute to Europe’s strategic objectives, but it will remain credible only if it stays anchored in its development purpose and responds to partner-country priorities.

Brussels should resist treating migration tensions as a reason to narrow its relationship with Morocco. The more constructive path is to invest where the two sides’ interests genuinely overlap.

Green fertilizers offer one opportunity: a partnership built on mutual value rather than short-term crisis management.

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