Brussels, 22/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - The ten western Mediterranean foreign ministers (Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania), as well as the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) secretary general, expressed during their 8th annual meeting on 15 and 16 April their commitment to consolidating cooperation in this Euro-Mediterranean sub-region. Stefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, attended the meeting (since the “5+5” summit grouping in 2009, attended by President Romano Prodi, the European Commission has been regularly invited to these gatherings). Ministers underlined their final declaration and their attachment to continuing the EU's efforts in favour of the southern Mediterranean countries, placing emphasis on the importance of the Maghreb in the construction of a Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and in the building of an area of peace, solidarity and prosperity in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who co-chaired the meeting with his Tunisian counterpart, Kamel Morjane, said: “We discussed the next UfM summit and decided to work together to prepare it in an adequate manner, by tackling political issues with a view to raising the major challenges the region has to face”. “5+5 dialogue is the core of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and a model for North-South partnership, that strengthens complementarity and solidarity between the two rims of the western Mediterranean”, all 10 ministers said in agreement. This is to be highlighted as, in the context of UfM, the Maghreb countries have on many occasions expressed the feeling that they have been left to one side. They have thus reaffirmed the importance of their special dialogue to discuss the common stakes and challenges and to give impetus to cooperation initiatives in the western Mediterranean and within other regional cooperation bodies. On the subject of the UfM, they “welcomed the adoption of the statutes of secretariat and the appointment of its secretary general (…) calling for effective start-up” of the structure so that it “begins as soon as possible to attain the aims and priorities traced out”. They also discussed the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean development bank, as well as the creation of a support agency for SMEs, without, however, saying what their conclusions were. It is known, however, that a reflection group has been formed by the French co-presidency of the UfM in order to study feasibility and conditions. The Tunisian minister, Kamel Morjane, spoke of the possibility of “enlarging dialogue to the new players such as business leaders whose role is essential for joint development, or to local authorities and entities”. A “5+5” business forum will be organised to “promote investment and partnership in the region through promotion of the vital sectors”.
In Tunisia, ministers decided to structure their dialogue by setting up a regular monitoring committee managed by the rotating joint presidency (currently Spain and Tunisia), which will be responsible for preparing annual meetings of foreign ministers and follow-up for their recommendations. By examining the economic and financial situation, they called for “complete and energetic reform of the international financial sector” and, furthermore, adopted a Tunisian proposal to create a “Euro-Mediterranean agency to protect the ecosystem and coast” in order to “ensure coordination between projects and initiatives” in the region. They also called for conditions to be met for “better transfer of technologies (…) for production, farm management, processing and enhancement of farm products” and in the energy sector, and for projects to be supported under the Mediterranean Solar Plan. Morjane suggested extending the scope of dialogue to new economic sectors such as trade and food safety. The migration issue was also tackled. This is one of the main matters of concern for all rim countries. Ministers welcomed the quality of cooperation in this field since the specific conference on this was held in October 2002, in Tunis, followed by those in Albufera in 2007 and Evora in 2008. Libya is to organise the next meeting on migration.
The Middle East situation was tackled and ministers restated how urgent it was to implement the Palestinian and Israeli two-state solution, calling for an effective and credible reactivation of the talks, but “expressing strong concern about the recent Israeli decisions to amend the rules for residency by Palestinians in the West Bank, especially when this ends up with expulsion”. They expressed the hope that the next venues, including the UfM summit in Barcelona, would provide an opportunity to take stock of these efforts and establish the prospect of bringing about the two-state solution in the near future. An “international conference could be convened in due course for achieving this objective”, they noted in their final declaration. (F.B./transl.jl)