Brussels, 14/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - Reactivation of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) seems to be well on track, if we are to believe its co-president, Alain Juppé, French Foreign Minister, and the secretary general of this joint institution, Youssef Amrani.
Discussion turned to this issue when the two men met in Paris on Thursday, after which Juppé announced that a new formation of the two co-presidencies is to be announced in coming weeks. Egypt, the other helmsman in the process, will give up its position to Tunisia as soon as its elections for a constitutive assembly are over. On the European side, according to the institutional logic of things, co-presidency should go from France to the new common diplomacy. Juppé has already said that application of the Lisbon Treaty must take pride of place (unlike the initial stance taken at the Elysée). The matter has not yet been fully settled. Internal discussion is underway, including in Brussels on Friday, in order to reach a final decision.
After their talks, Juppé and Amrani took stock of how the activity of the secretariat general has been given fresh impetus. According to the European co-president, it is working remarkably well. He congratulated his visitor for the work accomplished to convince not only the North but also the South that the UfM is well and truly alive and that all the events taking place around our common sea makes it more necessary than ever to rekindle such a Union. Since his appointment, Amrani has been on a mission. He has paid visits to several Arab and European capitals, and has also made a trip to New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, in the wake of the Deauville partnership, thus giving a lift to the role of secretary general whose mission, initially considered “technical”, now takes on a more political nature. Juppé has indeed pointed out that it is evident the UfM, which is not a “political body”, cannot operate outside political reality. It must, he states, focus on launching concrete projects that Amrani, who approves of this “concrete” approach, conceives as an accompaniment to the “economic and political transition” underway in the region, in accordance with the principle of “variable geometry”.
The secretary general has stated his preference for projects that could contribute to the creation of jobs, to the development of regions hitherto abandoned, and to regional and sub-regional integration (the Agadir agreement, the Union of the Arab Maghreb, and “5+5” in western Mediterranean). “Libya has its place in this”, Juppé has affirmed, and the secretary general takes the view that “all countries engaged in a logic of optimal proximity with Europe have a rightful place” within the UfM.
Projects already exist, Amrani has said, citing a Mediterranean youth office, job creation projects and projects in the fields of energy and civil protection. The only concern for the time being is that of finding adequate funding. Evoking the different approaches being taken in the region (neighbourhood policy, Deauville partnership), he has also called for “coherence”. (FB/transl.jl)