Brussels, 20/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - In the run-up to the first round of voting in the presidential election in France, a number of leading figures, including former Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and MEP Kader Arif (S&D, France), have delivered a severe judgment of the first years of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the brainchild of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “Launched without prior consultation by Nicolas Sarkozy who promised to bring the various peoples together through large-scale infrastructure projects, (the UfM) has totally spoiled a fine intention. It has brought unhelpful discord among Europeans and destabilised the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, an imperfect but powerful framework for Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and one that was capable of being reformed. The Southern Mediterranean states have seen the unilateral imposition on them of a new institutional way of doing things in the name of what was supposed to be a joint project”, they say in their joint statement published on Friday 20 April on the Huffington Post website. They regret the scant importance granted to the Mediterranean in the presidential campaign when, “at this time of Arab revolutions and the eurozone crisis”, this region is “part of our future”.
These public figures call for renewed ambition for Euro-Mediterranean relations: “Faced with such a mess, it must be said clearly: no, infrastructure projects alone will not resolve territorial or political disputes. No, relations between Europe and the countries of the southern Mediterranean cannot be based solely on objectives of security and preventing all movement of people when tomorrow's wealth will come from exchange. No, a neighbourhood policy cannot be constructed without involving civil society and the wide range of political, economic, community and cultural players. It is, therefore, urgent to break with the errors of the past and to propose renewed ambition for Euro-Mediterranean relations, firmly rooted in reality”. They call for “calm dialogue, based on mutual trust between partners and between peoples on mutually agreed priorities”. (FB/transl.rt)