Brussels, 20/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - “We do not want the UfM to be the hostage of the peace process”, said the Spanish ambassador to Egypt, Antonio Lopez Martinez, in an interview published in the latest edition of the weekly newspaper Al-Ahram Hebdo. Lopez Martinez has just been appointed to the government (subsecretario de Asuntos Exteriores) and is responsible, amongst other things, for EuroMed dialogue. The paper starts off by being fairly pessimistic about the climate in the region, on which depends the question of whether or not the summit will be held in Barcelona on 20-21 November and whether it will be a success if it does take place, despite potential defections.
“At this moment in time, the only hope is that the United States can bring enough pressure to bear on Israel. However, this country seems happy to go no further than to show its disappointment at the resumption of colonisation activities, stating that this could compromise their efforts to relaunch talks”, said the ambassador (our translation). The weekly also reveals that “Europe, whose role is marginalised (…), is trying to intervene to avoid the worst. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has spoken out against the consecutive failures of these negotiations under the sole aegis of the United States, regularly expresses his wish to see France and the EU take on a greater role in the process”.
In support of this observation on the role of Europe, Lopez Martinez referred to ministerial meetings between the heads of Spanish, Egyptian and French diplomacy (EUROPE 10238), in preparation for the Barcelona meeting. And, he added, “we do not want the UfM to be the hostage of the peace process” or “the scenario of last June [when the UfM summit was postponed] to be repeated. We must isolate the problems and move forward, otherwise there may not be a peace process left, or a UfM”.
The Spanish diplomat said that he is concerned at the consequences of stalemate, “because a breakdown of the UfM means a breakdown of the Barcelona process. We must, therefore, do all we can to make sure that the UfM is indeed launched”. He added that “Egypt [Ed: the co-president] is extremely well-placed for this, as are France and Spain”. He took the same opportunity further to reiterate the importance of avoiding stalemate in the process: “We need Mediterranean bodies and institutions, so that we can discuss the things in the project which unite us”. The UfM, he pointed out, was “born of the Barcelona process and this process did not work so badly; quite the contrary. I feel that it just needed to be reinforced". (F.B./transl.fl)