Barcelona, 27/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - During the conference marking the 20th anniversary of the Barcelona Process on Thursday 26 November (see EUROPE 11439), the secretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Fathallah Sijilmassi said that the high level meeting of the countries from the Euro-Mediterranean area expressed “a strong signal of support for the UfM to become the appropriate framework for regional cooperation”.
According to the UfM, Sijilmassi's statement is approved even if only around 20 governments attended the conference in Barcelona, and were represented by secretaries of state due to busy schedules and a tense situation in the region. High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini admitted to hesitating but judged the moment right. She took part both in the ministerial session and, in the afternoon, in the open meeting for civil society and project holders.
The conference is reported to have enabled a review of the state of play in this process - a process for which the mandate remains vague and which still sits badly with the EU's revised neighbourhood policy (see EUROPE 11433).
In an overall analysis, Mogherini said she thought that today's Mediterranean had nothing to do with the Mediterranean in 1995 when the Barcelona Process was launched. “The enthusiasm and ambition of that time have today given way to problems, threats and tragic humanitarian conditions”, she said. “Our links and our roots are common” and “we must do our utmost for our partnership to be concrete with an operational follow-up”, she stated, adding that “it can seem unrealistic to talk about development and education in times of war, but we must get to the causes of the problems”. “The number of young Tunisians that have left for Syria is due to the fact that they have not found their place in the organigram”, Mogherini went on, saying that it was important to move on and not be still noting the same problems in another 20 years' time.
In the view of Ignacio Ybanez Rubio, the Spanish secretary of state, the outcome of these years that have gone by is “positive” and his country feels strongly mobilised to safeguard the Mediterranean dimension. The UfM is “now present in everyone's agendas”, he said, while recognising a “need for adjustment and vision”. He argued for “the multilateral, coherence and differentiation” and for “East-South equity in the allocation of funds”. Elisabeth Guigou from France and head of the Anna Lindh Foundation also underlined how difficult current times are, which require “moving away from paternalism to partnership”.
Javier Solana, a former head of European diplomacy from Spain, was optimistic and described the Barcelona Process as “alive”. He also acknowledged that “everything has changed both in the North and in the South in the last 20 years”. His opinion was shared by Ahmed Aboul Gheit, a former co-chair of the UfM and a former minister of foreign affairs in Egypt. He too called for a return to the principles of the Barcelona Process, which had seemingly failed due to the stalemate in the Middle East. “The UfM is facing the same obstacles” in a “complicated situation”, he said, calling for attention to be focused on Libya as well as Syria. “It's the same ISIL” in Libya, he hammered, implying that the EU is not behaving well in criticising Egypt when it attacks terrorists. In his view, terrorism will go on for as long as young people are “a reservoir of anger”. As to the issue of migration, he thought it was important “not to complicate the lives of people who have already suffered”.
Youssef Amrani, a former secretary general of the UfM and member of the Moroccan cabinet, recalled that in 2010 it was possible to adopt a “premonitory” statement on terrorism although no other decisions were taken. “Twenty years later, the principles of the Barcelona Process are still valid”, he said, and there were “achievements that have been far from the principles” - achievements characterised by “incoherence in the priorities, instruments that were not adapted, and upheavals in the South”. Like Guigou, he called for the UfM's scope to be broadened. “Africa is questioning us”, he said. For Peter Busquets, a former Spanish ambassador who was one of the main contributors to the Barcelona Process, the Mediterranean, 20 years later, still “needs a vision and political commitment”. He said that the UfM needs to be placed against this new backdrop and made into “a multilateral platform for cooperation”, “a place of structured dialogue” and “a link with the neighbours of neighbours”.
Drawing conclusions from the day's debates, Irene Mingasson, said on behalf of the European Commission that the UfM needed to be more “a permanent forum for the whole region”. On the EU's neighbourhood policy, she said that the intention was “to focus on the employability of young people and sustainable development”. The real debate, between the lines, remains that of the UfM's link with the new approach of the EU's neighbourhood policy and the financing it will receive from the budget. This question is still to be answered. (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)