Brussels, 31/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - The 35 foreign ministers from the EU and the Mediterranean rim will hold their 9th annual meeting under the Barcelona process in Lisbon on Monday 5 and Tuesday 6 November. All directly involved countries, including Israel, Palestine and Syria, will be represented. Attending as observers will be Libya (until it meets the European demand that it formally agrees to the Barcelona process acquis), Mauritania, the secretary general of the AMU (Arab Maghreb Union) and the Arab League. No official agenda is available. Top officials will continue their negotiations until the last moment on the content of the final declaration. At present, it is not known if this will take the form of “joint conclusions” or European presidency conclusions alone.
Differences remain on the chapters on the Middle East and on some other related points. While there are differences of opinion on the details, the spirit in which this meeting is approached, and, more generally, the EuroMediterranean dialogue is continued, is even more problematic. There is no clear dividing line between European and partner countries, there is division in both camps. The issue of ways of working, with European Commission management deemed to be too rigid, has been at the heart of the debate over several meetings, and will be once again. Malta has, each time, taken the initiative and put forward proposals for effective co-management of the process. The criticism of the Commission does not exempt partner countries from charges of sluggishness: the frequent “jams” within their group which do not make it easy to set up joint projects or policies. Each seems to be working for itself, with no thought of the general interest. Coordination is difficult between Morocco, locked in its demand for an “advanced status”, Algeria, oil-rich and distant, Tunisia, passive, Egypt, seen as imperious, calling for all the seats and posts of responsibility created to be for itself, Jordan, disciplined, but with no individual initiative, to the extent that the European Commission says it is a “model student”, Syria, focused on the conflict with Israel, and Lebanon and Palestine, preoccupied with their own fates. This lack of coordination weighs heavy and, once again in Lisbon, could come to the fore, particularly when appointing a president for the Anna Lindh Foundation. The EU has said it will accept the choice of the Arab group, but the Arabs are divided: Morocco has put forward the king's principal adviser, André Azouylay, as a candidate against Tunisian historian, Abdelbaki Hermassi.
The differences will probably make themselves felt in the assessment of progress made in 2007 on the implementation of the programme set out at their last meeting in Tampere. Ministers will also have to decide on the 2008 work programme recently drawn up by the European Commission (see EUROPE 9526). Lastly, the final point expected and likely to provoke lively debate on both sides is the follow-up to President Sarkozy's proposal for a “Mediterranean Union” and the calling of a “summit” of Mediterranean rim countries in June 2008. Paris is trying to defuse the criticism, from Germany principally and other northern EU countries, and could be tempted to water down the proposal by closely involving the European Commission in an initiative which remains, for everyone on either side of the Sea, vague and lacking in concrete and detailed objectives. (F.B.)