The court examined application of those agreements to the territory, called “Western Sahara” in the proceedings. It distinguished the consultation carried out by EU institutions from the consent required under the law it applied.
The decisions’ effects were temporarily maintained to protect legal certainty and the Union’s external action. Annulment therefore did not immediately halt all trade. The General Court’s judgments opened an appeal stage and must be distinguished from the Court’s final judgments of October 2024, already included in the dossier.