Brussels, 16/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - While on a working visit to Brussels for talks with EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, Pierre Vimont, Executive Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), and Christian Berger, EEAS Director for the Middle East, and also a number of high-level officials at the European Commission, newly appointed Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Fathallah Sijilmassi repeated, in a statement for EUROPE, his pledge to re-energise the work of the Barcelona-based secretariat general, learning from the errors and inadequacies of the past.
In the first instance, one of his main themes will be to “concentrate on the sub-regional”, by broadly making a distinction between the eastern and western Mediterranean to take account of the specific constraints and particular problems, including political obstacles, facing each of the sub-regions. The dividing line will not, however, be set for all time. Depending on the projects in hand, the approach will follow the “variable geometry” method. It will be “pragmatic” and will be founded on “concrete projects and the pursuit of funding for them”. Without stating it openly, the UfM secretary general made it clear that he will seek to do more than just whistle in the wind. He will try to be pragmatic and concrete.
Sijilmassi is delighted with the relationship that has already been formed with the EU and the European Commission, in particular since this latter assumed the joint presidency of the UfM on behalf of the EU, as provided for in the Lisbon Treaty. He has very recently held talks with Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Stefan Füle on the Commission's involvement in developing the activities of the UfM secretariat general. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is already involved and two of its officials have been seconded to Barcelona. Contact has been established with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The secretary general sees here a great opportunity to create synergies between the projects to be designed by the UfM and those featuring in the objectives of EU policy for the Mediterranean. This chimes with the second course of action he intends to imprint on the UfM: increasing “interaction” among all potential players. This should bring a closer relationship with the European institutions so that the UfM can be more in line with the institutional policies that affect the Mediterranean.
Sijilmassi says he is “optimistic” about the overall situation, and the events taking place in the southern rim of the Mediterranean, in his view, make the UfM “more relevant and more necessary than ever”.
He chooses to overlook the negative comments about the UfM, the roots of which he feels are more to be found in domestic debates in the major countries. He will not, however, reject criticism if it can make a real contribution to the debate. The main thing, he believes, is that on both sides of the sea, everyone acknowledges that “we need the Mediterranean”, with its potential for economic growth, its economic complementarities, energy and human exchanges: “Everything links us”. He therefore calls on all those talking down the UfM to no longer set out “what shouldn't be done but what should be done”. (FB/transl.rt)