By Matt Williams - 19th May 2008
STRASBOURG – The proposed union for the Mediterranean will not resemble original ambitious plans, the European commission has revealed.
The commission’s external affairs chief, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said that the initiative will be a continuation of the EU’s Barcelona process, and used to support redevelopment in the Mediterranean region.
“The existing dialogues under the Barcelona process should be preserved. This is important. We say it is the Barcelona process: union for the Mediterranean,” she told journalists on Tuesday.
“Projects are at the centre of this initiative,” she added.
The initial plans for a 'Mediterranean union', as it was then called, were proposed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who had hoped to build an economic union on the basis of trade agreements.
When he revealed his ideas in May last year, Sarkozy also spoke about the potential for cooperation agreements between the EU and the Mediterranean union on energy, security, and immigration.
“The time has come to build together a Mediterranean union that will be the bridge between Europe and Africa,” proclaimed Sarkozy at the time.
Since then, however, the EU has changed the name to the more modest 'union for the Mediterranean' and downscaled the central focus of the plans, insisting that it will merely be an upgrade of the Barcelona process.
“We are thinking in terms of a merger, this is the only way that this union for the Mediterranean will be successful,” said Ferrero-Waldner.
The union for the Mediterranean is due to be launched in Paris on 13 July.
Far from taking on the role that Sarkozy had envisioned, the union will consist of a secretariat which will propose regional projects such as those aimed at developing infrastructure and encouraging investment.
Members of the union will meet regularly at summits to approve particular projects, after which the secretariat will be responsible for securing funding for the projects and overseeing their implementation.
In his statement welcoming the initiative, parliament president Hans-Gert Pöttering added weight to the view that this was simply an extension of an existing EU partnership.
“With the 'Barcelona process: union for the Mediterranean' the Euro-Mediterranean partnership enters a new phase. It will become stronger, more efficient, and, closer to citizens,” he said in a press release.
