Brussels, 28/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Fathallah Sijilmassi hopes the Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU will provide a fresh boost to the Euro-Mediterranean process in the “particular context” of the “arrival of a new European team” in Brussels and Strasbourg. Fears regarding political changes and conflicts remain, responsibility for dealing with which falls mainly on the member states.
Sijilmassi is delighted with the “work programme of the trio of European presidencies”. This “confirms the priority on the southern neighbourhood” and “highlights the importance of the regional dimension”. It refers to the UfM as a framework for action and the secretary general said he believed that “Italy intends to take a number of initiatives” such as organising a conference on in Civitavecchia 10 December on “funding transport projects” and pointed out that “other important strategic initiatives for supporting investment and the private sector exist”. He made a specific reference to the statement made by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on 4 February in Tunis on “the central importance Italy attaches to the Mediterranean”. All of this appears to him to augur well.
He believes that one of the main challenges will be to “tackle the weakness of economic integration in the Mediterranean”, a “major handicap. Several high-level meetings on funding transport and energy projects” have been planned by Italy, as well as “political meetings and initiatives”. He points out that “these initiatives will offer an opportunity for speeding up and broadening the movement” towards more dynamic cooperation but that “a political impetus in this respect is necessary”. Although Sijilmassi does not refer to it, political will is weak and influenced by the conflict in the Middle East, which means that focus is more on action in the western Mediterranean, thus explaining the need for a number of separate commitments being made.
Sijilmassi said that there had already been “greater awareness of the need to provide greater and more strategic substance to the relationship” whether this involves “accompanying the ongoing transitions, the deepening of Euro-Mediterranean co-operation or enhancing the competitiveness of Europe itself”. He said that the UfM is the appropriate framework for such action. “Under the impetus of the two co-presidencies (EU and Jordan) and its Secretariat General, an approach” has been defined: “relaunching ministerial conferences (five since September 2013 and two or three by the end of the year)” and a “decision to execute its decisions through its Secretariat General”.
The UfM has itself been structurally transformed through the creation of “regional cooperation platforms initiated and facilitated by the Secretariat General on different themes (employment, women, sustainable urban development etc)”. “The specificity of UfM projects is precisely that of getting the different partners to work together and build synergies between them”. Sijilmassi stated that the secretariat “is not seeking to set up its own projects or to get all the credit for making progress and achieving results, quite the contrary”. He said that “ownership of regional projects needs to be taken by those involved in them. What counts is that the projects are carried out effectively up to their effective implementation on the ground”.
An “institutional convergence platform” has been set up to help promote model projects. The secretariat is playing the role of “trusted third party” to the main long-term donors and investors (AFD, EIB KFW, EBRD and deposit banks in Mediterranean countries, Caixa). It will be “organising the financial partnership that will help implement projects”. He provided assurances that this initiative has received broad European Commission backing and that “fifteen projects have so far been identified in nine different countries”.
The impact “will only be felt gradually. What counts is that it helps provide an economic dynamic for developing trade and cooperation that will ultimately benefit the region's economy”. It is about “preparing the future, developing concrete action, with a step-by-step policy and to be ready when the right conditions are in place for speeding things up. The projects developed all respond to the needs for which a regional approach is appropriate as a complement to bilateral trade between countries. As an example, the economic stakeholders meeting in the context of the 5+5 Business Forum (Ed: western Mediterranean) in Barcelona in October 2013, expressed their backing for this operational dynamic and for the efforts made in this respect”.
The main challenge will, however, be getting different states on board and, so far, few of them have been mobilised. Sijilmassi disagrees with this impression and points out that “all of the countries in the region are involved in the UfM, but within this broad institutional format, concrete cooperation and projects have been developed according to the 'variable geometric' principle, which allows each country to feel comfortable in the partnerships implemented”. He asserted that “the political joint-ownership” by the different countries has even become stronger since 2012 with the new presidencies. The different countries are also involved in the Secretariat General and he acknowledges that “around twenty countries have one or several people working in the organisation and around fifteen (as opposed to ten in previous years) are financially contributing to its operational budget, alongside the EU”. He recognised that these contributions are “insufficient, particularly in the development phase of the activities” and will be all the more so depending on the development of activities, which is, “of course, a source of concern”.
The secretariat has become considerably more professional, “over recent years and the quality of the work has been broadly acknowledged. I hope, however, that in the next few months we will continue to make improvements that will help us consolidate the relevance of what we are doing, its organisation and its efficiency. We are working towards this end. I am voicing the wishes of the states accompanying us in the efforts being made”. At the same time, the secretary-general would like to “enhance coordination and synergies between the various stakeholders working in the Mediterranean and the action undertaken by the UfM, particularly with regard to earmarking and coordinating funding”. To successfully achieve this end, “the political will of member countries is essential”. He is proposing that, in addition to the group of senior civil servants, “a sort of UfM member countries' 'Coreper' (Ed: representative/ambassadors in Brussels) is set on a similar basis to that of ASEAN”. A “UfM group” could be set up in the main multilateral economic bodies (WTO, climate change, etc.) to create a “force of influence there”. A Euromed “Coreper”, “will not be an additional creation because it is already included in the founding texts” (in the declarations of the 2008 Paris summit and the ministerial meeting in November of the same year), stated Sijilmassi. (FB)