Brussels, 16/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - The senior officials who make up the committee on follow-up to the Barcelona process held a special meeting in Brussels on Thursday 15 May to monitor progress made in preparations for the “summit” of 13 July in Paris, when a Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is to be established. All the countries engaged in the process, in addition to the new members or those in the process of accession (Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Monaco, etc) and the observer countries (Arab League in particular) attended this consultation on a “non paper” tabled by the services of the European Commission. The document in question suggests various scenarios for UfM structuring. After these consultations, which take different forms and are conducted in parallel to those initiated by France (in its capacity as initiator and upcoming holder of the EU Council Presidency in July) a formal document will be adopted by the Commission which has already held a first general debate on the subject. The communication is due to be presented on Tuesday 20 May. Four days later, in Cairo, foreign ministers of the Arab Mediterranean rim countries will meet to smooth out the differences, which are said to be considerable still, in this group of countries on essential elements such as the joint presidency (President Mubarak's non-concerted and unofficially announced choice raises questions). In the same way, the creation of a secretariat - albeit light with authority restricted to the organisation of summits every two years and to simply following up joint projects, as the Commission would like, or with greater powers, as the Elysée suggests - has still to be resolved. Tunis and Rabat are officially candidates for hosting the future secretariat. Malta is also on the list. The list of observers to be admitted is another topic of discussion (Arab League, Gulf Cooperation Countries, and, possibly, the African Union, etc). The question divides two Arab countries, Algeria and Morocco, not without a connection to the Sahara issue.
Convergent sources say the round-the-table discussion held on Thursday, preceded on Wednesday 14 May by a meeting of ambassadors from countries of the region under the aegis of President Barroso, did not shed much light on the road to be taken. According to these sources, discussions would not for now bring any significant conclusions regarding the positions and directions taken by each of the protagonists. The only structured attitude at this stage is that of the Commission with its “non-paper”, its proposals being based on an analysis of the results of the Barcelona process and a reckoning of the failings and difficulties encountered.
The Commission admits the time has come to take advantage of renewed political will to give the process fresh impetus thanks to improved, more balanced, more visible and immediately relevant cooperation. In its view, the move should be towards consolidating the Barcelona process and not questioning it, and it calls for the maintenance and even the enhancement of structural acquis (follow-up committee, meetings of experts, etc), which points all the more to a UfM secretariat that only has ad hoc and purely organisational authority. The Commission quite rightly points out that work is underway, on the basis of Maltese proposals, to better structure EuroMed dialogue, and implicitly, it recommends that one should not flout achievements, which include the idea of forming a permanent group of representatives in Brussels. The Commission believes the “Barcelona process: a Union for the Mediterranean” should be a multilateral partnership geared to regional and transnational projects, and should increase the possibilities of promoting regional cohesion and integration. It states the process will complete the EU's bilateral relations with these countries, that will continue to exist in their current political frameworks, such as accession talks, European neighbourhood policy, the context of pre-accession and, in the case of Mauritania, the ACP framework.
A biennial summit should, the Commission says, set the work programme for two years with a view to improving the political level of relations, and it should also restore balance and ensure a better sharing of responsibility for multilateral relations. Also, thanks to regional and sub-regional projects, which are useful for the citizens of the region, it should make these relations more concrete and more visible.
The Commission suggests minimalist choices on these structures. On the European side, the choice of co-president should, it says, be compatible with provisions governing the European Union's external representation appearing in the EU treaty and, in this spirit, take account of provisions that are to be introduced by the Lisbon Treaty (EU external representation). The choice with regard to the southern and eastern rims should come out of consensus with a single obligation: - the country must be able to “invite all countries that are party to the initiative”. The question of relations with Israel is clearly posed. On the subject of the secretariat, the Commission suggests options - either competences limited to follow up of projects and decisions taken by the “summits”, or the general governance of the EuroMed process in close collaboration with the Commission. It would then be necessary for officials to receive postings for this. The European Commission also suggests ways for setting out the criteria for choosing joint projects, and their financing (essentially geared to recourse to private and other funding.) (F.B.)