Lisbon, 06/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The EuroMed ministerial summit in Lisbon hit troubled waters at the end when it came to the adoption of an 'approved' conclusions document, as EU High Representative Javier Solana put it. The talks had come aground on the issue of the Middle East. Solana said it was not a tragedy because there had been agreement on the substance but it had proved difficult to put it in words. He said it had not proved possible to move beyond the conclusions document of the Tampere Summit under the Finnish Presidency, which the EU had suggested using as a compromise. According to a spokesperson for the Portuguese Presidency of the EU, a common document on the non-political side at least will be published at a later date. Solana confirmed information from Arab sources that the talks among the Middle East peace process protagonists had been 'frank' but useful to the extent that they paved the way for the upcoming Annapolis conference and the donor conference in December. Solana, and before him the president of the Council (Amado), said they were optimistic and stressed the dynamism of the Barcelona Process, although Amado said a strategic framework had to be defined. Opinion on the French idea of a Mediterranean Union (MU) remains divided, with French sources saying that most northern countries were hostile to the idea and Arab sources saying the project had changed a lot. It has not been ruled out that the upcoming EU General Affairs Council will discuss the issue but Solana doubted that the full agenda for the Council would make it possible for the idea to be addressed in any detail. Amado took a slightly different tone, saying that the clarifications provided by his French colleague and shared by the countries in question led one to think that the MU would be a parallel process alongside the Barcelona Process rather than competing with it. He said the advantage of it was the way it had highlighted the need to get progress in the partnership under the Slovenian and French Presidencies of the EU in 2008.
Alongside the Portuguese Presidency of the EU and representatives of the European institutions (Council, Commission, EIB, EESC, EP) and joint institutions (EuroMed Parliamentary Assembly and the Anna Lindh Foundation), the conference was also attended by ministers from countries on either side of the Mediterranean, observers and others (representatives of Libya, the Arab League, the UMA, Croatia, Mauritania and Albania - the last two have now become full members of the EuroMed Process). (F.B.)