Brussels, 04/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 16 September, the European Investment Bank (EIB) will hold a round table on the Bank of the Mediterranean, to which a small number of finance organisations from Morocco, Lebanon and Palestine have been invited. They will discuss access to funding and the development of the banking sector in the region. The discussion will focus on “regional inter-bank relations” and on “the development of mobile financial services in the Mediterranean”.
The idea underpinning these expert debates is that of creating a Bank of the Mediterranean or Euro-Mediterranean bank, depending on the various initiatives. The EIB, like the European Parliament - but unlike the member states of the EU - is in favour of creating a regional development bank, possibly in the form of an extension of the FEMIP (Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership). The idea of a regional bank was favoured by the Americans in the Reagan era, in the framework of their broad-based MENA (Middle East North Africa) plan. The project has been put on ice as a result of ongoing upheaval in the Middle East.
In the meantime, Europe is manifesting its ambitions of harmonising banking practices in the area and of offering a secure framework for the financial world. It takes the view that the absence of a framework of this kind will undermine its entire regional integration policy in advance and prevent better use from being made of the potential resources of a region that enjoys energy reserves and growth markets. However, the Mediterranean continues to be one of the least attractive regions of the world to foreign direct investment (FDI). “The Mediterranean does not lack money” but is nonetheless one of the least attractive areas of the world, according to experts, because it fails to offer the required security.
The EIB is therefore getting involved in improving the framework for welcoming FDI and would like to play a key role in Euro-Mediterranean finance, but it is in competition with the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), which has been asked by the G8 to coordinate aid to the countries of the Arab Spring. (FB/transl.fl)