Brussels, 15/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - The summit of the UfM (Union for the Mediterranean) has been postponed and no new date has so far been set. The heads of state and/or government were to have met in Barcelona on 21 November, both to give a shot in the arm to the Middle Eastern peace talks and to put the Euro Mediterranean process back on track.
The UfM, which came into being in July 2008, suffered problems early on due to the political fall-out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also differences of opinion over its structure, budget and the content of this dialogue between the EU and the countries on the shore of the Mediterranean, plus Mauritania, Jordan and the Balkan states.
The postponement of the summit came about due to a kind of observation of general shortcomings. No official announcement to this effect was made through the day on Monday and no “text explanation” has yet been issued from the most recent attempts made by the former Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, who has been tasked by his country to make one final “last-ditch attempt”. His last contacts in Paris, on Thursday 11 November, with his French and Egyptian former counterparts (and co-presidents of the UfM) have been extended to Tunis, Algiers and Tangiers. Despite his personal commitment, he received only a polite refusal and a reminder that nothing will be possible unless there is progress in the peace process. There was even an incident which coloured his visit to Tunis, where that country's government has made a U-turn after Moratinos' statements indicating that he had been given a positive response by the head of state.
This postponement, the second since 7 June, proves, as was the case in the Barcelona Process (1995-2008), that it will always be hard for Euro Mediterranean dialogue to escape from the negative impact of the repeated problems in the peace process. It is due to this that a number of delegations are said to be in favour of completely changing the system, particularly as there are still question marks in Europe hanging over the best way of running the UfM and whether the principles laid down in the Lisbon Treaty as regards the external representation of the EU are applicable to it. Catherine Ashton, the high representative for foreign policy, is believed to be firmly of the opinion that the co-chairmanship of the UfM is, de facto, a matter for European common representation (and therefore, the UfM of the inter-governmental design which has prevailed in recent years, even though this was only ever implicit), even, as she wrote to the 27 foreign ministers of the EU, if it means a transitional period. This would give enough time to set common diplomacy in place. This point, on relations between the EU and the UfM, is expected to be on the agenda of the “General Affairs” Council of 22 November, but it is by no means certain that it will stay there now the Barcelona summit has been put on ice, a Community source told us.
However, the postponement will have no direct impact on the “technical” decisions (budget, working programme, identification of projects, etc) which were examined and finally adopted in Brussels on 12 November by the senior officials, which make up the reference authority of the process. In particular, the budget has been set at just above €6 million a year (three of which will come from the resources of the Community budget). Spain and France have pledged to put in extra, but none of the other 43 member countries have so far given any indications of their contribution to joint expenditure and some are expected to opt for involvement “in kind”, by sending secondment personnel. (F.B./transl.fl)