Brussels, 14/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The 27 trade ministers of the Euro-Mediterranean area, including the fifteen EU Member States and their twelve partners of the Mediterranean rim (without Libya for now) are to meet for the first time on 29 May in Brussels. The main theme of the discussion is the prospect of a multilateral free trade area initially foreseen for 2010 and, in this light, encouragement of South-South cooperation between partner countries.
The aim of the multilateral area, which still only exists in theory, should be facilitated by more significant progress in the completion of the process for bilateral association agreements, establishing industrial free trade between the EU and each of the Mediterranean countries, as well as gradual liberalisation of agricultural trade. It is taking a long while to complete the network of association agreements. While the agreements with Tunisia, Israel and Morocco are already in application, that with Jordan is not yet ratified by France and Belgium, and Egypt has still to sign its agreement (signature scheduled for Monday has been deferred). Talks with Lebanon and with Algeria are making good progress. Finally, Syria has begun the negotiation process but discussions are still at an early stage. In addition to this situation, which does not augur well for accelerating the global Euro-Mediterranean project, partners have still much to do in order to study the possible impact on the economies of the region.
The Swedish Presidency therefore took the initiative of convening an informal meeting of trade ministers of countries engaged in the Barcelona Process in order to discuss not only the specific prospects of the region but also global perspectives, which involve all the countries within the WTO framework. As senior officials entrusted with following up the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue discussed again on 30 April in Brussels, it is also a question of liberalising the services sector and of setting in place harmonised rules on competition, public procurement and the protection of intellectual property. According to one Community source, "all partners agreed in saying that there must be approximation of legislation in these fields in order to facilitate investment in the region". The creation of two working groups will be proposed to the trade ministers on 29 May, one on services and the other on rules of origin. The European Commission hopes to achieve harmonisation of the rules laid down in each of the association agreements.
These discussions on trade, which are designed to structure direct relations, should also allow views to be exchanged on the prospect of a new round of talks at the WTO. It is known that the European Commission wishes to mobilise all its partners - Mediterranean and ACP partners - before entering the heart of the subject with the United States at November's meeting in Doha (Qatar).