Plans for Mediterranean Union

2008-05-20 20:30

Brussels - The European Commission on Tuesday unveiled its plans for a Union for the Mediterranean, scaling down what was once an ambitious French idea for a revamping of the European Union's 13- year-old policy of relations with its southern neighbours.

In its set of proposals, the Brussels executive also reaffirmed its view that the so-called "Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean" should involve all EU member states and that it should not constitute an alternative to joining the EU, as France had originally intended and as membership candidate Turkey had feared.

"This project is not directed against Turkey," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the commissioner in charge of the EU's external relations and neighbourhood policies.

And in further blows to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the commissioner overruled his proposal that the project would be run exclusively by states with a Mediterranean coastline, arguing that it would only work if "everybody feels that they are involved".

The project presented on Tuesday was described by the commissioner as a merger between Sarkozy's original plans for a Mediterranean Union and an existing EU neighbourhood policy known as the Barcelona Process.

Merger

Such a merger would seek to "upgrade" the EU's relations with its Mediterranean partners and place all participants "on an equal footing" with the creation of a co-presidency and joint secretariat.

Unlike Sarkozy's more ambitious plans, which envisaged states around the Mediterranean cooperating closely on a long list of broad issues, the commission's proposed union is to focus on specific projects that can benefit the entire region.

These include maritime "highways of the sea", roads, cleaning up the sea and promoting the use of solar energy.

At the same time, the commission acknowledged in its proposal that Sarkozy's initiative could bring more lustre to the EU's existing neighbourhood policy, which has enjoyed "weak visibility" and has failed to deliver on key promises, despite efforts to create a Euro-Mediterranean free-trade area by 2010.

"The (Euro-Med) partnership has witnessed a strong promotion of multilateral and bilateral relations, but now needs a qualitative and quantitative change, to spur investment and employment creation and optimise the use of human resources," the commission said.

Between 2000 and 2006, the commission provided €4.6bn to fund the Barcelona Process, set up in 1995.

And while no new EU funding will be made available, the Mediterranean Union is to try and pay for regional projects by attracting money from the private sector and from international financial institutions such as the World Bank.

Headquarters

The project will be open to all 27 EU member states, not just to those with borders on the Mediterranean Sea, and will hold top-level discussions every two years.

One potential stumbling block is that all major decisions, including where to locate its headquarters, will have to be reached by unanimity.

The project, due to be formally agreed by EU leaders in June and launched in Paris on July 13, will encompass all 27 EU member states as well as Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Monaco. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA