Brussels, 25/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - Europe is indulging in a contradictory game by negotiating free trade agreements separately with the Maghreb states because, in doing this, Europe does not support regional integration which it is in fact calling for, said Abderrahmane Mebtoul, who was invited to the European Parliament on 24 September. It would seem Europe's long term interest is to favour the creation of a vast space with an integrated Africa, and the Maghreb would be the hinge, he said.
Mebtoul was speaking as part of the inaugural session of the EU-Maghreb Friendship Group launched by MEPs (Greens, Socialists and Liberals). This group has now evolved from being just a plan and aims, according to one of the people who started it - Malika BenArab Attou (Greens, France) - to promote reflection and debate on the theme of Maghrebi integration in partnership with the EU. Among those promoting this are Carmen Romero Lopez (S&D, Spain), Vicente Miguel Garcés Ramon (S&D, Spain) and Sonia Alfano (ALDE, Italy). BenArab-Attou has launched an appeal to her other colleagues who might want to take part in this effort - the aim of which is also to initiate Euro-Maghreb cooperation and to involve civil society.
Mebtoul, who is a professor in economics from Algeria, painted a negative picture of the situation in the Maghreb but said he was convinced of the importance of the economic and human potential of this area. “The AMU (Arab Maghreb Union) does not always manage to materialise”, he said. “Each country proceeds with managing its foreign relations with the various countries and blocs without coordinating with the other countries of the region” and sometimes this is “to the detriment of the other countries”. Between a badly coordinated Maghreb and a Europe which negotiates en bloc, the relation ship is “imbalanced”. Europe is encouraged to abandon its Eurocentric vision and to take its long term interest into account - which is apparently also in Africa. The Maghreb bridges the two continents.
In general, Mebtoul said, “the people of the region are paying for the inability of the elites to come up with a common project”. “While the world is going through upheavals that are unprecedented since the end of the second world war (1945), the Maghreb remains without subscribers”, and is marginalised on the international scene. Its GDP represents only 0.5% of global GDP and 2.4% of the EU's GDP - a rate that is only “slightly above Greece's GDP”. Its overall GDP is “artificially increased by Libya and Algeria, due to the weight of hydrocarbons, and phosphates for Morocco”. Its trade remains insignificant in global trade flows and the Maghreb has lost its weight in the world. “Inter-Maghreb trade does not exceed 2-3%. The opportunities to emerge are real”, Mebtoul said. He gave an example, saying that by linking Algerian gas and Moroccan phosphates, the Maghreb can become one of the biggest producers of fertiliser in the world. Synergies and complementarities can be exploited to make the Maghreb one of the pivots of the global economy. Energy alone constitutes for the Maghreb what “coal and steel” was for Europe - even if he would prefer Maghrebi construction to begin with culture rather than with the economy or, as now, with politics. The most urgent issue is apparently to break down the wall of defiance and the issue of the Sahara will be overcome through an integrationist approach. The rest will then follow on naturally.
What is especially lacking in the Maghreb is healthy governance, said Mebtoul. He stresses “the urgent need for new structures to make the Maghreb an active vector in the global economy for which the euro-Mediterranean area and the Euro-African area constitute a natural zone. In fact the urgent need is for the Maghreb to have new structures so that it can adapt to the world's future geostrategic challenges from 2015-2020 onwards, which will be determining for its future if it wants to avoid social and political turmoil”.
Romero Lopez highlights “the cost of the non-Maghreb which is not only economic”. She says “the specificities of the western, northern and southern Mediterranean must be emphasised”. Garces gave the example of Latin America which has carried out its process of integration more successfully. (FB/transl.fl)