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Union for the Mediterranean: what can we expect?

Edited by Ahmed Gamal

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 08:46

More than a year after the creation of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), many unresolved questions remain. What type of projects will be supported? How will these projects be financed? And how will the UfM Secretariat will work?

On 19 November in Brussels, a high level seminar will give the opportunity to experts and decision makers to debate on the future developments of the UfM, a few weeks before the negotiations on the statutes of its Secretariat. Former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine will conclude the debates with some personal reflections.

The event is organised by the European Studies Institutes of the academic faculties of Saint Louis Brussels, with the support of the European Commission, the European Parliament and with the participation of the Council.

The seminar takes place at the European Parliament from 9am-6pm on 19 November.

The ‘Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean'‚ was launched in Paris on 13 July 2008 in a bid to give a new impulse to the Barcelona Process, according to the Joint Declaration adopted at the heads of state or government meeting.

A few months later, on November 3-4, the Foreign Ministers from the EU and the Mediterranean states came together and agreed on the institutional structures, the work programme for 2009, the fields of cooperation to be pursued and the state of progress in the implementation of projects decided.

One of the decisions taken at the Marseille meeting was to re-name the ‘Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean’ to ‘Union for the Mediterranean'. They also decided that the League of Arab States would participate in all meetings at all levels.

On the structure of the Union for the Mediterranean, one of the decisions was that the co-presidency shall apply to summits and meetings and that one of the co-presidents will be from the EU and the other from the Mediterranean partner countries. Barcelona was chosen as the seat of the Secretariat, according to the Declaration agreed by the Foreign Ministers.

According to the Paris Declaration, a new impulse would be achieved "in at least three very important ways: by upgrading the political level of the EU’s relationship with its Mediterranean partners; by providing for further co-ownership to our multilateral relations; and by making these relations more concrete and visible through additional regional and subregional projects, relevant for the citizens of the region."

The Paris Summit, co-chaired by French President and rotating President of the European Council, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, had brought together 43 European and Mediterranean States, the Community institutions and regional organisations.

Global Arab Network