On Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 December, the European Parliament's S&D Group organised a seminar in Brussels on relations with the Maghreb and the cost of its non-integration, which weakens the GDP of each of the five Maghreb countries (Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia) and limits their trade.
"For a stronger and more united Maghreb: meeting the common challenges" was the title of the two-day seminar, which was divided into sessions on different subjects: "the economic dimension and cost of the non-Maghreb", "civil society as a factor of regional integration", "the security dimension" (attended, as announced on Thursday, by EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, and the vice-president of the presidential Council of the Libyan government) and a discussion on "the political dialogue".
At the opening of the seminar, the deputy leader of the S&D Group, Victor Bostinaru (Romania), affirmed that both shores of the Mediterranean wanted to work together: "the Maghreb is more important than ever for Europe", especially after the changes that have been triggered in the region. He added that a "strong and stable Maghreb is essential for the EU, and firstly for the region itself". The S&D Group wants to "push the EU to come closer to us", and is convinced that "effort will come from the region itself", Bostinaru stated, adding that the region's economic, social and cultural potential is enormous, and that on the security level cooperation will be important. "These countries are paying for the lack of integration between them", he said.
Zakia Sekkat, the head of the monitoring committee of the Maghreb Union of Employers (UME), Jihene Boutibe-Mras, the secretary-general of BusinessMed, which is linked to BusinessEurope, Noureddine Zekri, the director-general of the Maghreb Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade, Moncef Cheikhrouhou, former director of the Arab Maghreb's Institute for Development Finance, and Mohamed Bakalem, a member of the Algerian Economic and Social Committee all in turn gave a full report on the process of integration.
This process remains theoretical because it is only partially implemented, both on the legislative and regulatory level and on the staffing level. Two good examples are that in port relations, maritime trade is not direct but transits through ports on the European shore of the Mediterranean. A joint motorway project crossing the Maghreb has been carried out and finalised in each of the countries, but the junctions at the borders are not in use. The result is that "south-south trade does not exceed 3% of the Maghreb region's overall external trade".
During the following session, the role of civil society was highlighted. However, two representatives from civil society associations – Mohamed Saïd Saadi, from the Arab network NGO for development, and Mohamed Ahmded El Hadj Sidi, from the Magrheb coordination of human rights organisations – underlined the limits of civil society, in the absence of transparency and due to the weakness of the democratic process, despite a sometimes just, but not fully executed, legislative framework. The states reportedly have the same tendency in managing civil society and limiting its impact on the evolution of societies, alternating offers, pressure and repression, a number of speakers stated. Civil society needs European support, but does not want the EU to impose its own choices.
The representative from the Arab universities association presented Maghrebi projects within a general Arab framework, and stated that Euro-Arab cooperation is working well in the university domain. (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)