Brussels, 07/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - The meeting of economy and finance ministers of the EuroMed area, held in Brussels on Tuesday 7 July, underlined the need to strengthen cooperation between countries on either side of the Mediterranean in the context of the global crisis, which is an “extraordinary challenge” for all. Both co-presidents, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde for the northern rim and her Egyptian counterpart, Youssef Boutros Ghali, for the southern rim, said the meeting had been constructive and underlined the need for cooperation to address the global crisis in order to safeguard growth and employment. Discussion turned to projects envisaged as part of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), in the aim of launching large-scale work in renewable energy, transport, marine decontamination and the creation of a propitious climate in which business can develop. Philippe Maystadt said the EIB, of which he is president, was committed to supporting this development policy, promising above all to ensure “greater flexibility” in the granting of financial resources.
The meeting was attended by Sweden's Finance Minister Anders Borg, European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquín Almunia but few ministers from partner countries (apart from the Egyptian participant, there were only his Moroccan and Lebanese colleagues and Tunisian secretary of state, the other countries being represented by ambassadors or officials). It produced a text of “joint conclusions”. Ministers called for the ranks to be tightened and for a vigorous and coordinated response to stabilise financial markets and support international efforts to bring the economies to recovery.
Ministers asserted their common conviction that trade protectionism cannot be the right answer and would even prove counter-productive. The UfM is designated as a useful framework to face up to the crisis together and, in this spirit, ministers called for the Euro-Mediterranean regional integration effort to be stepped up, promoting “South-South” cooperation and acting in transparency so that citizens feel concerned.
They welcomed the strong mobilisation of finance institutions alongside the Euro-Mediterranean partners, as recently shown by the meeting in Paris on sustainable development. According to the ministers, €5 billion are already on the table from various donors including the EIB, the AFD and the KfD, to support renewable energy projects. They also noted with approval the mobilisation of the private sector mainly through the Inframed investor network, specialised in long term credit and set up last April in Alexandria. Inframed will complete the resources of the EIB (under FEMIP, Euro-Mediterranean investment and partnership facility) to support projects in transport, energy and urbanism infrastructure. Ministers tackled the question of economic reforms in the partner countries and spoke of recommendations adopted in 2005 during their meeting in Skirat, Morocco, aimed to encourage improvements in the investment and business climate, especially for SMEs, liberalising economies for greater competitiveness, ensuring good governance in the public sector and, finally, ensuring the macro-economic stability of partner countries. (F.B./transl.jl)