Brussels, 15/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 10 June, the secretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Fathallah Sijilmassi, was invited to Morocco by the Council for Development and Solidarity (CDS) reflection group, where he stated that “2015 is an unprecedented year of great challenges for the Mediterranean”. He used the opportunity to launch a call for “a more pragmatic approach - ambitious in its objectives, operational and progressive in its development”. There is a need, he says, for “further regional integration in the Mediterranean”.
Sijilmassi recalled the backdrop to this need on the Euro-Mediterranean scene and the dangers that exist. The current time is marked, he says, by large changes - with a “Europe [that] is going through its own transitions and focusing towards the East”. It is also a time when Europe “is experiencing weak economic growth and the emergence of nationalist movements”. Is this a period of Europe “turning in on itself and looking inwards for identity”, as has been reported? The countries from the southern shore of the Mediterranean are going through “unprecedented transitions”, Sijilmassi says, although these transitions vary from one country to the next. The international context itself is marked by “transitions in energy and the challenge of climate change”, and the global economy is “losing growth” with “the emergence of phenomena of inequality” that have heavy “social and political consequences”. This all means there is a risk of “a trap of two extremes” - one area being focused on a “nihilist approach” and the other on a “lyric approach”.
For the first extreme, “nothing works”, and for the second, the approach is “theoretical” with the ritual reference to the Mediterranean as the “cradle of civilisations”. Sijilmassi says that the reality, on the other hand, is “terrorism and radicalism; racism and xenophobia” - with the question of whether the problem is inside or outside the countries. Added to this is the issue of illegal immigration which impacts on the question of youth employment, Sijilmassi states.
For the Mediterranean, “all the challenges are of a regional nature and require collective action and a regional approach”. Although “security issues seem a priority today (…) the lasting solution is in development. Job creation is the number one challenge”, in Sijilmassi's opinion.
2015 could also be a year of opportunities, marking the 20th anniversary of the Barcelona process, the review of the European neighbourhood policy (ENP), and the “year of UN Millennium Development Goals”. Europe “needs to give new impetus to its vision of partnership with the countries of the South” and “a more pragmatic approach should be adopted - ambitious in its objectives, operational and progressive in its development”. For the partner countries, there is an increasing “need for regional integration” in order to correct “the abnormally low level” of trade between countries - “particularly in the Maghreb”.
Sijilmassi says that the UfM created “an institutional dynamic that needs to be consolidated in order to give it new political impetus, financial strength and a strong social and human imprint”. He adds that “there is no problem of money” in the Mediterranean for financing the projects that are on the table - “the international and regional financial institutions, especially the EU, are there alongside private funds”.
The “main objective” of this phase should be “to coordinate instruments”, which are currently characterised by “too big a dispersion and by the existence of large means without mechanisms for broadening the results on the ground”. Sijilmassi therefore says it is important “to lean on the private sector, on civil society, academic networks and local communities”, and to act on a method that rationalises the process of development and decision-making more, in line with the “top down v. bottom up” method. (Fathi B'Chir)