The backdrop. The desire to give more tangible content to the Euro-Mediterranean partnership (see this column of yesterday) has probably been strengthened by recent developments in various areas: illegal immigration (with the dramas in Ceuta and Melilla, the need for arrangements with Morocco, the situation at Lampedusa, the shipwreckings of illegal immigrants); the fact that the majority of identified or arrested terrorists are of north African origin; the troubles in France (and elsewhere)...