Brussels, 26/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - ANIMA, the multi-country investment network which supports the economic development of the Mediterranean, signed a cooperation agreement with ATU on 21 September. ATU is the technical unit which manages the Agadir Agreement - an agreement signed by four EU partner countries of the southern rim of the Mediterranean on mutually opening up their markets. Joint initiatives (seminars, conferences and technical workshops) are planned under the ANIMA-ATU agreement.
The Agadir Agreement was signed by Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and Egypt in Rabat, Morocco on 25 February 2004 and came into force on 6 July 2006. It was, however, applied only from 27 March 2007. The Agadir Agreement, which is in large part financed by the EU, is open to any Arab country which has an association of free-trade agreement with the EU. It seeks to encourage the development of “horizontal” Euro-Mediterranean trade and to harmonise trade standards with Euro-Mediterranean rules of origin through “diagonal cumulation” (involving two or more southern Mediterranean countries) and institute the freedom of movement of goods under terms agreed with the EU. (FB/transl.rt)