We could debate Morocco being European, but before the big religion gap, Morocco was considered an extension of Rome, and as we all know, Rome is Europe and everything outside of Rome is full of Persians, Africans, and Pagan Germanics
I'm pretty sure no one considers the Roman Empire to be the geographic definition fo Europe, yes, half of its territory was in Europe, but it was a transcontinental Empire, much like the Ottoman Empire was.
Maybe it's because I'm not in Europe, but I'm more open to the idea of a greater Med.
I'm not European nor do I live their, however the EU and its predecessors were created for European integration, not Mediteranian integration.
culture that involves Morocco. I imagine if there wasn't a religious divide(AKA Morocco was Christian, or no Islam, etc.) then Moroccan membership would have been a real issue.
While religion did play some role, overall even if Morocco was Christian it still would'nt have been invited as it's in Africa and had alot fo democritzation, Human Rights ane conomic issues that wouold have prevented it.
Anyway, yeah, Morocco is a non-option. If anything, Tunisia stands the best chance to join the EU.
I'm not saying it will never be a member, rather that without a drastically different EC, their's no chance before 2000.
As it stands Morocco may well end up in the EU a few decades from now, I mean it's being integrated now, is set to join the common market and has been passing legislation bringin its laws in line with EU standards.
If I had to describe EU expansion into debetably non-Euro territory, it'd go Turkey->Armenia/Georgia/Azerbaijan->Lebanon->Israel->Tunisia->Morocco/Syria/Palestine/Algeria.
Personally I consider Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey geographically European myself.
Lebanon is interesting, if ITTL Israel gets EU membership, and Lebanon eventually breaks free from Syrian influence as per OTL and starts bringin itself to EU standards it would probably be able to join as well as it's a multi-religious country, cultrually European and would be in the same boat as Israel in terms of geography.