Brussels, 02/06/2010 (Agence Europe) -The newly appointed secretary-general of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) has officially taken up office. The Senior Officials' Committee that is overseeing the EuroMed dialogue signed the official letter of appointment on 28 May (rather than the UfM co-presidencies). Meeting in Brussels on 28 May, the Senior Officials' Committee examined progress in implementing the “roadmap” of the various stages in getting the general secretariat up and running. The crucial question to be decided upon is how it will be organised and putting the secretary general, deputy secretary generals and members of staff at all the levels of the hierarchy in place. Ambitions will have to match the relatively modest funding. The European Commission has offered €3 million, which will be provided in the near future. At present, the secretary-general has been given just under €800,000 to tide him over for four months. The Senior Officials' Committee will decide on the UfM's budget, removing the question mark of having the UfM budget approved by the summit, as called for by the French president's special advisors (France is one of the two countries chairing UfM). The summit of heads of state planned for November this year would not take place if the Middle East peace process were to run into further difficulties, which would put the secretary-general in the invidious position of total deadlock. To date, the European Commission is the only official contributor (Commissioner Füle offered €3 million on 3 March), but French politician Henri Guaino has hinted that France would contribute funding, not giving any indication, as far as we are aware, of how much cash will be put on the table. The UfM will therefore not be overflowing with staff and will have to work efficiently. Renewal of its budget will be contingent on its success in getting projects off the ground.
The Senior Officials discussed the political backdrop to the situation and the fact that several ministerial meetings had been disrupted by the situation in the Middle East. The two joint statements can be severally interpreted as suggesting that all the Palestinian Territories, or only part of them (making a distinction between territories under occupation and territories simply controlled by Israel), are in the UfM and therefore a “presidency summary document” talks of approximation of views on technical issues in order to avoid the upcoming conference in Cairo, Egypt, on 2-3 June being subject to a similar fate to previous meetings. Other ministerial meetings have been announced, like a meeting on farming and rural development in Egypt on 15-16 June; a meeting on the environment in Dubrovnik in September; a meeting on higher education and research in Brdo on 3-4 October and a meeting on employment and jobs in Brussels. The most difficult summit to organise will be the meeting of foreign ministers due to take place in Brussels on 15 November 2010, a few days ahead of the UfM summit which may or may not take place.
On institutional issues, the most pressing question is the appointment of the co-presidency countries. Egypt's mandate will end in July and it is expected to continue to hold the joint chairing of the UfM because no other countries have come forward. France has been able to be the EU's co-chair since July 2008 due to a series of ad hoc agreements with the rotating UfM presidencies (Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Spain followed on from France). Guaiano says things are simple and there is no connection with the EU's rotating presidencies, but several member states have asked Catherine Ashton to say how she sees the matter. Meanwhile, the Commission's view is that the fundamental documents (the November 2008 statements from the Paris and Marseilles summits) clearly refer to the Lisbon Treaty.
The appointment of the UfM secretary-general has now been signed and sealed with the official recruitment document giving his start date as 4 May 2010 (the date from which he will be paid). Ahmad Massa'deh has not been given the salary he was demanding at the start (€18,000 a month, which includes expatriation allowances). Instead he will get a salary of €15,000 a month to cover all expenses, social security, medical insurance and 25 working days of annual leave. The contract will run until 3 March 2013 and states that his salary can be adjusted by the Senior Officials' Committee. Any employment disputes will be heard by the Spanish courts in connection with the headquarters agreement signed with Madrid on 4 May 2010. The secretary-general has been given the authority to recruit staff provisionally, deciding on terms and conditions and the staff hierarchy. Kamel el-Mahdaoui, a Moroccan diplomat who used to work with the EU in Brussels, has been appointed as director of the secretary-general's cabinet (Jean-Christophe Menet, an advisor to Guaino, was initially planned but gave up before actually moving to Barcelona). (F.B./transl.fl)