Mistrust amidst a political vacuum. The new Union for the Mediterranean (UFM) idea has been shorn of its unacceptable anti-EU aspects, only to leave a political vacuum and mistrust. The squabbles have died down but the outcome is so slender that one could be forgiven for wondering whether it was worth risking France and Germany coming to blows over it in the first place. The idea of a Union between countries bordering the Mediterranean was unacceptable as far as the EU was concerned, and did not cater for the aspirations of non-EU Mediterranean countries. All the fine talk about civilisation projects showed itself in its true colours - it had been nothing but purple prose from the start. All the aims set out in the short document submitted to colleagues at the summit by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel (published in yesterday's newsletter) were culled from existing instruments covering areas that are European Community domains by definition in any case, like trade and legal immigration in the Schengen area.
One might have expected the plan to provide new impetus and enthusiasm for a flagging EuroMed policy, but it seems to have encouraged nothing but foot-dragging, if not downright mistrust. Some EU countries fear that EU neighbourhood policy resources will be siphoned off to the Mediterranean. Deputy Czech Prime Minister Alexander Vondra explained in Paris last month that he opposed any instititutionalising of the Mediterranean dimension, and that if one started down that road it would lead to a Baltic Europe, a Central Europe and a Mediterranean Europe. Where, he wondered, would this leave the European Union?
Clash of opinions and ambitions. Non-EU Mediterranean countries are even more sceptical and unimpressed because their aims for future relations with the EU vary from one country to another and they are certainly not planning to come together in a single group. Turkey is already linked to the EU through a customs union, and as far as it is concerned the next step must be for it to become a member of the EU. Nothing else will do. Morocco is calling for special bilateral relations with the EU. Algeria rejects the idea of a free trade zone and is happy with things as they stand (with the addition of a new bilateral strategic energy partnership to escape from the logic of trade alone). Tunisia, however, is already involved in a free trade set-up with the EU, which is exactly what it wants. Libya is still on the margins. Cooperation projects with Syria are moving forward but there is a political deadlock at the moment. Both Libya and the Lebanon have different priorities and ambitions. Israel, of course, is seen by many of its neighbours as the odd-man-out.
Nothing much encourages these countries to form a compact group in an overarching Union with the EU. They often have radically different political views too, particularly when it comes to Islamist extremist terrorism. Algeria has long slammed some EU member states' governments for failing to take on the terrorists, instead being prone to give them safe haven and leave them too much freedom of action. Algeria wants closer ties with the EU on global, intelligent counter-terror issues (see Fathi B'Chir's reporting of a press conference in this newsletter the day before yesterday). Morocco takes a basically similar view.
Several EU member states feel that the Union for the Mediterranean plan is vague and wishy-washy, with distinct lack of clarity over how it would interact with the Barcelona process. Even France and Germany have not managed to see eye-to-eye over joint chairing of the UFM. France says one of the joint chairs should be from a non-EU country, but Germany rejects this idea as a matter of principle.
Something positive may yet emerge if… Something positive may still come out of this. Firstly, greater sharing of the EU's Mediterranean policy, whereby non-EU countries would get a genuine co-decision type role. This presupposes, however, that they can agree among themselves. More importantly, some policies of genuine common interest, like tackling pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, could be given a boost. Generally though, the divergent interests, situations and ambitions of non-EU Mediterranean countries make it impossible - both politically and economically - for the region to be 'globalised'. Big unity ceremonies are pointless and ineffective, leading to opposing views becoming even further removed from one another (for examples of this, see debates at the joint EuroMed Parliamentary Assembly and issue 9618 on the collapse of a meeting on the EuroMed process). Yet, less grandiose, down-to-earth projects have been crowned with success - facts prove it. (F.R.)