Brussels, 14/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - Around midnight on Thursday 13 March, European Council President Janez Jansa announced that Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel had informed the European Council of their joint proposal on setting up a Union for the Mediterranean to strengthen the Barcelona process. The initiative received “wide support” and work will now begin in the various Council bodies, the Slovenian prime minister said, indicating that the change of name reflected “an updating of the process”.
A short annex to the Presidency conclusions says that the “European Council approved the principle of a Union for the Mediterranean which will include the member states of the EU and the non-EU Mediterranean coastal countries states”. The European Council called on the Commission to “present to the Council the necessary proposals for defining the modalities of what will be called 'Barcelona process: Union for the Mediterranean' with a view to the summit which will take place in Paris on 13 July 2008”.
In other words, the Council approved (1) the retention of everything that is working well in the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue, (2) use being made of Community procedures and (3) “all working together”, commented a French diplomat on Friday. This facelift for the process will mean private capital working with public funding, and the setting up a mechanism for monitoring projects and a high-level dialogue every two years.
Asked by EUROPE about his understanding of the mandate given by the European Council, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said: “We will define the modalities, building on the very rich experience gained from the Barcelona process, building on the Franco-German document and on the debates we have had. Spain and Greece have announced that they will submit ideas and all suggestions are welcome. We will work from the basis of the Barcelona process and use the experience gained from it”.
“It is my pleasure to announce that we are changing the Barcelona process into a Union for the Mediterranean,” the French president announced on Thursday evening, stating that the project had been received “with great enthusiasm by all European countries”.
The German Chancellor “backed it”, her Austrian counterpart “strongly approved” it and the Luxembourg and Dutch prime ministers also, he said. Angela Merkel told journalists that this is a “very good Franco-German proposal” which offers “every chance of giving fresh impetus to the Barcelona process”. The president of the Italian Council, Romano Prodi, told the press he was “very pleased”. He also stressed that the UFM presupposes strong cooperation from the southern rim countries. The president of the Spanish government, José Luis Zapatero, expects the Commission to make a proposal strengthening the aspirations of the policy in the Mediterranean, saying: “No-one is more interested than Spain about the fact that the EU has greater ambitions for the Mediterranean”. Gordon Brown said: “It's a good idea. It takes forward the Barcelona process”. He added: “This includes all 27 members and you are right that we have an interest in making it work”, alluding to Gibraltar.
“Barcelona has not worked”, said Nicolas Sarkozy. “The Barcelona intuition was good” but the “political readability broke down” as there was no coming together on precise projects. The UFM includes Erasmus, making the Mediterranean the cleanest sea in the world, and energy policy, he explained, while acknowledging that the European Council is “not yet in agreement on the content of the agenda”. He said the president of the Commission has been called on to “make proposals on good governance” and to reflect on setting up a “small secretariat”.
Ideas for location have been put forward, some speaking of a southern rim country, others of Barcelona or Marseilles, but at the moment, Nicolas Sarkozy says, everything is possible.
The French president went on to say that “funding is not a problem; there is a lot of it”. He said: “We agree that the Commission must manage the funding” but the UFM must be able to say “this is the project we want”. French sources state that the projects cited range from decontamination of the Mediterranean and the environment to maritime traffic surveillance, as well as civil protection, a Mediterranean Erasmus scheme, the constitution of a “Euro-Mediterranean scientific community”, and better financing of SMEs on the southern rim with the help of the EBRD and the EIB.
To the question: “Have you toned down your ambitions compared to the initial project?”, Nicolas Sarkozy replied: “I have never had the idea of excluding any European countries (…). On a voluntary basis, all European countries were asked if they wanted to take part (…) I have never used the term 'observer'. All European countries will be members but only the countries bordering on the Mediterranean will be able to form the co-presidency (…) I do not see in what I could have toned the project down!” The French president went on to give his assurance that the “European Parliament will be involved” in the UFM project and said others could follow suit. For example, Donald Tusk has called for a similar initiative with regard to the eastern dimension of neighbourhood policy. The Polish prime minister will be presenting a proposal to the next European Council to cover cooperation in terms of transport, infrastructure, visas, institutional cooperation and legal matters.