Brussels, 30/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - EU and Arab League Foreign Ministers will meet in Malta on 11-12 February. A Slovenian Presidency source has confirmed that the Presidency has sent invitations on behalf of the EU, although the meeting is at the initiative of Malta as part of efforts over the last year or so to resurrect the Euro-Arab dialogue, which was launched following the 1973 oil crisis, but became somewhat redundant less than ten years later. Several attempts have been made to restart this dialogue. An advantage for some and a disadvantage for others is that it does not include Israel which continues to be the stumbling block for the Barcelona Process, which provided a different framework for the relations united Europe intends to build with its neighbours on the southern rim of the Mediterranean. The lack of progress of the EuroMed Process strengthened the conviction of those who wanted a dialogue that only involved the Arab countries opposite Europe, even though the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the oil rich suppliers of hydrocarbons, have built their own relations with Europe. Security issues will now be dealt with as a priority within the NATO framework, and there will also be individual -dialogues between sub-regions (“5+5”, EU-AMU, EU-Agadir, the Euro-Mediterranean Forum which brings together 11 countries, and, of course, the French Mediterranean Union project).
There is nothing “contradictory”, in any case, between the dialogue with the Arab countries and the Barcelona Process, said former Maltese Foreign Minister George Vella, who is now a member of the national parliament and of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA). There is a need, he said, for direct dialogue and the Euro-Arab dialogue is the “most appropriate framework” for cultural, political and economic debate with the “Arab world as a whole”. Such a framework, region to region, would also be useful for those countries which are “reluctant to develop further their bilateral relations with Europe”. It would also seal historic links.
These historic links are also highlighted by the Ambassador of the Arab League in Brussels Abdelwaheb Derbal. They consist of “considerable scientific, economic and cultural enrichment” despite “successive wars which have tarnished the fine progress made by scientific development in medicine, geography, astronomy and agriculture as also in the arts and literature”.
The League of Arab States is keen to see the Euro-Arab dialogue rekindled, he added: “the worrying situation which prevails in the region and the lack of a dynamic political role from the European side is once again an encouragement to revive this dialogue rapidly and seriously”. Malta initiated this Euro-Arab Foreign Ministers meeting, and the initiative has been backed by the Portuguese Presidency then by the Slovenian Presidency, which recently sent invitations to Foreign Ministers. (F.B.)