Brussels, 13/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The ministerial level consultation meeting, in Barcelona on Monday 13 April, between the two shores of the Mediterranean started with the affirmation of increased interest in in-depth cooperation, which alone is capable of responding to the common challenges, terrorism and illegal immigration.
The meeting is being organised by High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, together with the current Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the EU and Spain. The foreign ministers from most of the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean are taking part. Among the partner countries, only Israel is being represented by a secretary of state - an arrangement which is said to have been negotiated by Madrid in order to defuse in advance the hostility of the Arab countries to the presence of Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
The Moroccan minister, who is on bad terms with Spain and who was not expected at the meeting, changed his mind in the end and made the journey - undoubtedly a sign of the importance of the meeting and particularly of the lunch involving informal exchanges on the political situation in the region and the fight against terrorism. Spain indeed made this theme the main subject. Another sign of the importance attached to this meeting is the attendance of Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and of most of the European foreign affairs ministers, including from the current Latvian Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and several ministers from Eastern European countries.
Of the 34 members of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), 32 replied to the invitation to this meeting, the goal of which - according to the foreign minister of the current Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU, Edgars Rinkevics - is to lead to a “bold and flexible new approach” of the “neighbourhood policy” and to a re-assessment of the reasons why it is important (in other words, the dominant instability in the region and its insecurity both in the north and the south, the head of the Spanish government stated). Rinkevics underlined “the link between politics and energy” that, in his view, the Ukrainian crisis illustrates and that strengthens the need for dialogue with all the “neighbours”.
For this “it's important to understand each other better and listen to each other more”, said Mogherini during her opening speech - so to face “the difficult transitions and abuses” together which affect “mare nostrum” and so as to know how “to counter the siren calls of the jihadists”. Working together is the key phrase, in Mogherini's view, because “our exchanges have not always been up to this” “You are not our neighbours. We are all neighbours”, she said, to illustrate everyone's equal involvement in fighting against the ills affecting the region. “One thing is clear. We are all in the same boat”, Mogherini added, and the consultations that are being undertaken, and which will soon be opened up to civil societies, must lead us to “create a link between our societies, between the peoples” and to “build a common future”. However, “we need to be clear. Our decisions must be based on political and not technical choices”. In Mogherini's view, it is important “to invest politically” in the Mediterranean and no longer to be limited to “the usual arrangements”.
Rajoy also underlined the common interests and concerns as regards terrorism and uncontrolled flows of illegal migrants. The solution would be, he said, “to modernise and improve the neighbourhood policy”. “We will not change radically and impose our views, but we will go deeper and have more exchanges between us - both between the countries of the Mediterranean basin and between the EU as a whole and its neighbours”. In order to counter the migrant flows, Rajoy's way would be to work more with “the countries of origin and transit, development cooperation” encouraging “South-South exchanges” and also, he said, “legal channels of migration”.
The step of consulting the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean is appreciated by these southern countries, according to the first reports back from the “coordination dinner” in Barcelona on Sunday evening, which was organised by Egypt. “We appreciated the gesture and the fact that the EU is presenting questions and not a document to be approved, and that the EU is prepared to wait for responses”. In short, according to an Arab diplomatic source, this is the end of the practice of “prefabricated solutions”.
Satisfaction on the form, but reservation on the substance. The first request is reportedly for clarification of concepts highlighted by the EU such as “more for more” or “less for less”, which do not seem to be well understood and which do not define to what Europe is politically committed. There is direct reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which the European attitude is not considered to be very dynamic - “the subject must be put back at the centre”, says the same diplomatic source. Another point to be clarified is the “neighbours to neighbours” arrangement, which the EU considers important in the changes to come. This leads to some countries from the second circle understanding “neighbours” like sub-Saharan Africa, the countries of the Arabian peninsula or beyond. There is “the risk of bringing problems to the region that are faced elsewhere”, like Yemen or Iraq. These would be “additional problems for a region that is not short of them”, according to the same source, who states that this feeling is almost general. There is also a request for more detail on what the “political conditionality” means that the EU mentions.
These countries also want a stronger commitment on security, but they do no currently say whether the commitment requested must be in a collective framework or country by country. (Fathi B'Chir)