On Wednesday 4 June, Stefano Sannino, acting Director General for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf at the European Commission, announced that the European Commission was seeking strategic partnerships with Morocco and Lebanon.
“We have a strategic partnership in the pipeline with Morocco, and I would like to have one with Lebanon when circumstances allow, particularly in relation to the banking sector”, he explained at a hearing of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Mr Sannino also said that discussions were underway to adopt a mandate for the EU Council to negotiate individual strategic partnership agreements with the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates).
With regard to the agreements already signed, the CEO hoped that the implementation of the agreement with Tunisia would be speeded up.
Referring to the future new ‘Pact for the Mediterranean’, due to be presented in September, Mr Sannino said that this document - which would not be “another strategy”, but “a framework for concrete initiatives” - would focus on three pillars: people, the region’s economic potential, and security and resilience. The Managing Director explained that the aim was for the partner countries to take up this pact, potentially during the celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of the Barcelona Process in November. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)