The EU and the Kingdom of Morocco have launched an EU–Morocco Digital Dialogue to expand cooperation on technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and online public services.
The Dialogue was launched by Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, and Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni, Morocco’s Minister Delegate in charge of Digital Transition and Administrative Reform, the Commission announced on Wednesday.
It will cover areas including support for digital start-ups, “secure and trusted” digital infrastructure, and work on making public digital systems compatible across borders, including so-called digital wallets — tools that can store and share digital credentials such as identity documents.
The partners also said they plan to exchange best practices on building “AI compute” infrastructure, meaning the high-powered computing capacity used to develop and run AI systems.
Supercomputers and research links
Alongside the launch, Virkkunen and Seghrouchni signed an administrative arrangement on AI ecosystems for innovation, the Commission said.
As a first step, four European supercomputing centres — BSC, CINECA, GENCI and LUMI — have signed a letter of intent with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, which hosts the most powerful supercomputer on the African continent.
The Commission and Morocco said the work would build on the Medusa Submarine Cable System landing in Nador, Morocco, and on ongoing support for Morocco’s “Digital Morocco 2030” strategy for rolling out public digital services.
The EU and Morocco are marking 30 years since the EU–Morocco Association Agreement signed in 1996.
