Brussels, 12/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - The Euro-Mediterranean free-trade area was central to the meeting, held in Brussels on 11 November, between the European Trade Commissioner, Karel De Gucht, and the trade ministers of the 44 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean, which was co-chaired on Thursday by Egypt, France and Belgium. Amongst other things, the meeting looked into ways of increasing economic integration and breathing new life into trade and investment flows in the EuroMed area.
Among their main commitments, the ministers agreed on the importance of following an ambitious and well-balanced agenda for the Union for the Mediterranean on trade issues beyond 2010, when it was initially planned for the Euro-Mediterranean free-trade area to be concluded. The ministers also gave their blessing to measures to facilitate trade in Palestinian products, including access to a duty-free and quota-free market for all Palestinian products, the accession of the Palestinian Authority to the Agadir agreement and reinforcing the Palestinian administration in the sector of trade.
The ministers also laid down the priorities for their work in 2011. In particular, they agreed to focus on initiatives which can bring together the economic operators of the EuroMed partnership, such as a trade and investment facilitation mechanism aiming to provide more centralised information on trade and investment flows, the rules and conditions in the region. The ministers also spoke of the fight against piracy and counterfeiting as a further priority of their agenda.
On the sidelines of the ministerial meeting, which also saw the birth of an Arabic-language EU export helpdesk, Commissioner De Gucht and the Belgian trade minister, Steven Vanackere, signed two bilateral protocols, one creating a mechanism to allow the more effective settlement of trade disputes between the EU and Egypt, and the other for a similar mechanism between the EU and Lebanon. (E.H./trans.fl)