Brussels, 08/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - In Barcelona on Thursday 4 March, EU President in office Miguel Ángel Moratinos, the two Joint Presidents of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Bernard Kouchner of France and Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt, and European Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Štefan Füle formally inaugurated the Secretariat General of the UfM, which had been granted articles of association the previous day. In the presence of Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilisations Jorge Sampaio of Portugal, representatives of Catalan local authorities and former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Xavier Solana, they formally marked the coming to office of new Secretary General Ahmed Massa'deh, who was appointed little over a week ago. This former Jordanian ambassador to Brussels still has a great deal of work to do if he is to make this body work, the technical nature of which is clearly set out in the articles of association. He is in no doubt, however, that the success of the projects planned will have definite political significance, in addition to the, equally political, plus of having both Israelis and Arabs working together within the same organisation. Masa'deh expects work to begin in earnest around the middle of April, once the six assistant secretaries general have been appointed. Greece and Italy have already made their selections, but the decision, taken by high-level Euro-Mediterranean officials the previous day, was to wait so that all six can be announced together. Staff will also have to be recruited and, most importantly, a budget will have to be agreed and contributions from UfM members collected. The first announcement came from the European Commission: Füle allocated €3 million. The most significant contribution, and this was highlighted by the UfM secretary general, is from Catalonia, which has made more than 2,700 square metres of luxurious office space in an unused, but fully renovated, wing of the Pedralbes Palace available to the UfM free of charge. The local authorities, keen to promote Barcelona as the “EuroMed capital”, are providing staff and material assistance, and have announced that they are reserving premises in a historic building - a former hospital - to house all the associated EuroMediterranean organisations (association of chambers of commerce, of companies, etc).
The great unknown remains how the articles of association will be applied to embed the political approach: should the European institutions be involved directly in its operation or not? As things stand, the text of the articles of association would seem to come down more on the inter-institutional side than on the intergovernmental. The initial intention was to sideline the European Commission.
The articles of association will be judged in practice, when project planning in the six priority areas begins. No doubt some articles will have to be amended, for example, to state the length of the term of office of the Secretary General, an omission in drafting in the ferment of the last-minute horse-trading. What is certain is that the Commission will have to appoint swiftly an official to act as the secretary general's adviser, and to ensure consistency between UfM activities and the EU's Mediterranean policy as a whole. Paris is expected to appoint to the post of head of the secretary general's private office an official close to Henri Guaino, Special Adviser to the Elysée, who initiated the UfM.
These are the facts. What was especially striking was the lengths that the main supporters of the UfM - Spain, France and Egypt - went to in order to mark this event and to proclaim that the UfM has become real as an institution. In the presence of the guests of honour - Mossa, Judeh, Sampaio and Solana, who was hailed as a prime mover in the dialogue between the two shores of the Mediterranean - there was no skimping on symbols: raising the flags of the 43 member states, reading their names aloud, etc. The ceremony took place at the Pedralbes Palace, in front of which was arrayed the Royal Guard to mark the “historic” nature of the event. The formality continued inside the walls of the palace with a series of speeches in which Moratinos, Kouchner and their Egyptian counterpart, and also Füle, repeated that a historic page had been written. The same terms were used by “Miguel, “Bernard” and Ahmed” to underline, with the necessary familiarity, their firm personal involvement and collaboration which allowed them, despite all the scepticism, to bring about this Utopia. In the UfM lies the future of the peoples who live around the shores of the Mediterranean and in it they put their hope that a “common area of peace and prosperity” will at last come into being. (F.B./transl.rt)