Brussels, 21/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - The announcement of the postponement, from June until November, of the Euro-Mediterranean “summit” was made simply, on Thursday 20 May, following a period of intense activity by Miguel Ángel Moratinos around the capitals of the Arab countries and Israel to try to ensure that the meeting would take place on the agreed date. The Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation's Communications Directorate General made the announcement, saying, “The three countries (Spain, and joint UfM Presidents Egypt and France) agreed that the summit would take place in Barcelona in the third week of November, when we will commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the Barcelona Conference in 1995, which marked the start of the Euro-Mediterranean process”. It said to that “the foreign ministers of Spain, France and Egypt will meet in Cairo on Sunday to agree arrangements for implementing this decision”.
The formal communication announcing the postponement of the summit came, it should be noted, from Spain, and not from the joint Presidencies or the newly established UfM Secretariat General which is based in Barcelona, when great efforts have been made to persuade everyone of its independence from the European institutions (including the EU's rotating Presidency). It is whispered, however, that Paris and Cairo agreed “with it” to delay the summit “temporarily”. This is a further indication of the confusion which reigns in the Euro-Mediterranean process, which has struggled since its launch in July 2008 to put in place its organisation and get on top of its internal management, only having provisional funding. The muddle is further complicated by the Middle Eastern situation. Any slim hopes of indirect Israel-Palestinian talks under the aegis of the United States will only be realised in the autumn, if at all. Madrid says that “this delay will also allow more time for the Israel-Palestinian negotiation process, which has just been launched, to produce results which will help create the right conditions for the success of the summit”.
The frequently advanced reason for Arab disaffection is their widespread refusal to sit down with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdon Lieberman. Spain did all in its power to get round this obstacle, offering to cancel the pre-summit ministerial conference, at which Lieberman would have been the lead representative. However, Lieberman refused to be sidelined and said that, no matter what, he would be in Barcelona along with Benyamin Netanyahu, who is more acceptable to Arab leaders. According to an Arab diplomat, however, the main reason is that the UfM is still far off being what it was expected to be, as may be seen by the lack of enthusiasm among the countries of the Maghreb and the Mashreq to succeed Egypt. All this is especially hard for Spain which was, El País reports, “unable to guarantee the success” of the summit which it wanted as one of the high points of its European Presidency, before taking over from France as joint-President of the UfM. (F.B./transl.rt)