Marseilles, 28/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - The group of ten “experts” formed of high-level specialists from five countries of the northern Mediterranean rim, and five from the southern rim, announced on Thursday 27 May that assessment of the proposed creation of a Euro-Mediterranean bank was now complete. The matter has been evoked many times over the past ten years. The group approves the choice of a half public, half private institution (with one third of its capital coming from the resources of the European Investment Bank). The group's report will be presented early next week to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who commissioned the report. Sarkozy plans to share it with his colleagues at the UMP summit meeting, scheduled in principle for November.
The group devoted to this assessment task is chaired by Charles Milhaud, former president of the Directoire des caisses d'épargne françaises. In addition to EIB Vice-President Philippe de Fontaine Vive, whose participation was personally solicited, members of the group include well-known figures from the world of finance on both sides of the Mediterranean including Jean Lemierre, former EBRD president. This bank is frequently cited not only as an example to be followed but also as a counter-model. “The original feature of this work is that experts from both North and South have been brought together, pooling the competences of the private sector, public sector and large development bodies”, Milhaud president said. “We carried out an exhaustive inventory of all public funding” currently allocated in the Mediterranean area, he said, evaluating this at a total of €20 billion. The relative weakness of “public structure funding” is, he explained, mainly due to the lack of “real financial markets” in almost all the countries of the southern rim. SMES and SMI have difficulties when it comes to medium and long-term funding in support of business, he said.
In order to heighten the credibility of the zone, the Milhaud mission recommends making the EIB the “reference shareholder” of the bank in order to secure investors, and the aim is to acquire the “triple A” rating thanks to the status enjoyed by the European bank. The bank should act in respect of subsidiarity, Milhaud said, so that what already exists is not duplicated, and establish reassuring operating rules in the countries of the region. He said progress had been noted in recent years. Philippe de Fontaine Vive said he shared these conclusions, underlining in turn that there are not “sufficient tools” for supporting development in the Mediterranean. He pointed out, moreover, that the joint banking institution will not be founded on a regional basis and will be ready to accept “all those that wish to join”. EIB participation will be through transformation of the FEMIP (the Euromed investment and partnership facility), whose change into a subsidiary had been evoked in scenarios already envisaged back in 2006 for triggering possible transition towards its transformation into a regional bank open to other joint, public-private financial contributions. For this, however, it is nonetheless necessary to receive institutional clearance, mainly that of the EU member states which make up its management board. The Milhaud report will, moreover, be officially presented to the president of the EIB, Philippe Maystadt, on 1 June.
This will not be the first time that the EIB has the subject referred to it. In a communication to Council (dating back to 27 February 2002), the European Commission had, after an initiative presented by Italy, submitted a bank project along the lines of the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development). The EuroMed ministerial conference in Naples, in December 2003, did not take the idea on board and took a stance in favour of strengthening the FEMIP, created in October 2002. The subject was again placed on the agenda of a joint ministerial meeting in Barcelona in November 2005. Romano Prodi, who was Commission president at the time, had taken firm action in favour of the proposal for a bank and it was also one of the objectives of the Spanish EU Council Presidency in 2002. Other member states were reticent about the project. Some, both northern and southern states, had pointed out that there was a risk of having to face up to management costs that were not incurred with the FEMIP.
On many occasions, and also very recently, the European Parliament has taken a positive stance in favour or such a development. The Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) had itself formed a working group resulting in the recommendation that such a financial institution should be set in place. (F.B./transl.jl)