Valencia, 23/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Euro-Mediterranean conference finished on Tuesday after two days of meetings dominated by the repercussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, without which, they would have had a magnificent meeting, declared the President of the Council in his conclusions. Progress was made on certain aspects of economic and financial co-operation, as well as in social, cultural and human affairs. The spokesman for the Arab group, Habib Ben Yahia, Tunisian Minister for Foreign Affairs, shared almost exactly the same feeling and confirmed that the session was "excellent", rich and worked out in consensus thanks to the "navigation map" of the Barcelona Process, which would ensure a lasting upturn. The Arab group of countries proved imaginative during the meeting and met up for a preliminary meeting at the end of March in Tunis, with experts from these countries, in an effort closely examine the "action plan" outlined at Madrid. Josep Piqué explained that the Barcelona Process was not a European offering to the Mediterranean but a joint project. Mr Piqué listed the points of convergence on which countries were committed to the process and the policy to which they were striving, as well as the ultimate objective of setting up a Euro-Mediterranean "common area". This "common vision" is expected to lead to a joint political objective that they take seriously, Mr Piqué explained, in his conclusions. He also referred positively to the role played by Libya and hoped that the country would play a full role in the process.
Mr Piqué regretted that the good results chalked up in this session were hidden by the fall-out from the Middle East crisis, illustrated by a unique even. For the first time since the launch of the Barcelona Process in November 1995, delegation Heads from neighbouring countries in the Southern Mediterranean (in which Palestine is a full member and enjoys delegate and observer status - of the Arab League, the UAM, Libya and Mauritania) left the hall when the Israeli representative, Michael Melchiror, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs began to speak. This purely symbolic protest by the Arab group was accompanied by some sharp exchanges between, not only Arabs and Israelis, but also by the Europeans, such as Commissioner Chris Patten, who rejected the accusation of the Head of the Israeli Delegation, who described EU protests as anti-Semitic. Mr Peres was not present during the first day. Arriving from Washington, he had been delayed for hours and finally (official explanations said because of technical reasons) touched down in the middle of the night. Diplomats do not exclude the possibility that he sought to avoid Arab and European criticism against the Sharon government's policy, of which he gives the impression that he does not approve in its present form.
This climate did not prevent progress in other fields. One notable result: ministers confirmed the ratification of the agreement of principle recently negotiated between Euro-Mediterranean Trade Ministers for a pan-European harmonisation (Community, PECO and MTC) for rules of origin. Experts, however, will still have a difficult job ahead of them to translate them into practical terms. Overall, Ministers adopted the "Action Plan" (read yesterday's bulletin) put together by the Spanish Presidency, which includes more practical recommendations and the reminder of the themes tackled in the Barcelona Process than firm and formal decisions. High officials will be seeking to thrash out the content later.
Mr Solana says "Valencia meeting must open road to building a Palestinian State"
During the open session, Josep Piqué called for a "qualitative leap" to be made to bring the Barcelona process out of its current lack of progress. "A new balance must be struck so that the 27 partners feel it is theirs" and, to do this, there must be "greater visibility and strength of conviction", he said.
Javier Solana, for his part, stressed in his speech that it was necessary to "return to the spirit" of the Barcelona Declaration of November 1995 (Ed.: when, as Spanish Foreign Minister, he had chaired the meeting finally attended by Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat, and those present remember the accolade between Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez and Solana after this success, coming after times of great tension). "In the light of the events in the Middle East, we must solemnly recall the principles of our collective effort", said the High Representative, insisting on the fact that: - dialogue must prevail over force (there is no alternative to dialogue between Israel and the elected representatives of the Palestinian Authority, including its Chairman, he remarked, going on to add: "Peace cannot be made unilaterally"; - respect of "simple principles of free movement of goods and persons is also at the heart of our process" (while, in the Middle East, there is a temptation to "rebuild the walls of Berlin", "a spiral that must be stopped as soon as possible"); - Barcelona is the "respect of the identity of each of us and the differences of each of us". "The Middle East crisis is not the failure of the Barcelona process", exclaimed Mr Solana who said: "The Valencia meeting must be that which opens the way to building the Palestinian state, without waiting any longer". For the future, he mainly noted that the Euro-Mediterranean partnership "is in the process of differentiation" and that "this must be taken into account". He hoped there would be "more open dialogue on defence issues" (at this point, in response to concerns expressed by Mediterranean partners, he recalled that when "European troops were deployed in the past, it was to protect the Muslim minorities of Europe").
Most comments and declarations on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were made during the open session and on the sidelines of the session. Mr Piqué had set the tone by focusing his speech on seeking peace (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.5). He was followed up by the representative of the Arab Group (Tunisia) described as "tough" by EU Council sources. The Israeli vice-minister went for it. Vexed by the departure of the heads of the Arab delegations, he left the structured text that he was preparing to read to one side and delivered an "emotional" and personal message in which he expressed regret that the Barcelona process is thus reduced to a "monologue".
Three sections of the Action Plan
Apart from these rather fierce exchanges, the formal work continued as planned and resulted in the fixing of the terms of the Action Plan, in its three sections (to which we shall return).
A- Political dialogue: Ministers approved the initial text, especially the indication left to their political appreciation on the proposed Charter for Peace and Stability that has been practically abandoned since the Stuttgart session. They confirm the mandate of the eight senior officials to continue their work as appropriate so as to enable the Charter to be adopted as soon as the political situation allows.
Regarding terrorism, the initial text, challenged mainly by Syria -which was absent - was made much lighter simply keeping references to the conventions and other international texts. The highly consensual wording should not make it difficult to gain accession by Syria and Lebanon to this part of the Action Plan, accepted immediately by all the other Arab countries.
B) Economic and financial section: The theme was only briefly discussed. Ministers mainly endorsed as a whole the recommendations made by the senior officials, especially those for seeking anything that can strengthen South-South cooperation. Encouragement to the countries of the "Agadir" group (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan) was withdrawn but a reference was added - at Algeria's request - to the still theoretical prospect of purely Maghrebin (UAM) sub-regional integration. Algiers does not seem interested in joining a group that has already been formed.
Ministers also heard EIB Vice-President Francis Mayer present the way that the decision taken by the European Council of Barcelona will be given concrete implementation on the establishment at the European Investment Bank of a credit line specific to the Mediterranean. It is expected to start this autumn and should allow the Bank to raise the level of its intervention in the region, from EUR 1.5 billion annually to 2 billion by 2004 and 2005 at the latest (and not double this as indicated by the Council president). Mr Mayer also explained how this budget would be allocated and extended to the social sector, to give impetus to investment and to technical assistance for private business projects. This point was practically the only one that fuelled discussions between ministers on the prospect of creating a Euro-Mediterranean bank. Partner countries insisted on the need to stick to this aim as reflected in the wording of the Action Plan which recalls the interest and the decision for continued feasibility.
c) social, cultural and human aspect: this was marked by the decision to create a Foundation and support "dialogue between civilisations". Another result of the discussion, the adoption of the draft programme in the field of justice and related areas. A ministerial conference on migration and social integration of immigrants is envisaged during the second half of 2003.
Ministers retained the principle of developing a system of alternating the meeting places and common activities in the Presidency, in the knowledge that current political circumstances remains a theoretical objective