Neighbourhood policy

For the PACA region, cooperation with its neighbours is the key to successful development, claims Michel Vauzelle

The western Alps are less of a barrier than a geographical area with a shared culture and common history. The opportunities presented by European cross-border and transnational programmes over the years have provided a framework within which the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) region has been able to work with our neighbours. The specific areas of common ground, and the political will of the presidents of the Piedmont, Liguria, Val d’Aosta, Rhône-Alpes and PACA regions, led us naturally to the creation of the Alps-Mediterranean Euroregion, positioned both at the heart of Europe and open to the Mediterranean.

In 2006 in Turin we signed a first memorandum of understanding on the creation of this vast Alps-Mediterranean Euroregion, which comprises 17 million inhabitants from the five regions. This was followed in July 2007 by the signature of a cooperation agreement officially founding the Euroregion and paving the way for its future legal status, the EGTC, a new EU instrument allowing us to work viably and sustainably as a European territorial cooperation grouping. In my capacity as the current president of this Euroregion, I inaugurated our new joint office in Brussels on 31 January, alongside the other presidents of the other regions. The Alps-Mediterranean Euroregion has established a presence at the heart of Europe in order to improve our representation there.

Our Euroregion sets out the borders of a community of interests representing decades of economic and human cooperation. It reflects a shared willingness to pool our efforts on key issues where the stakes are vital for our regions. By pooling our economic strength, and harmonising and linking our industries, universities, technology parks, and agricultural sectors through solidarity networks, we are better able to face globalisation. The exceptional economic growth of the Alps-Mediterranean Euroregion will enable us to better safeguard the interests and cultural values of southern Europe at EU level.

If Europe wants to have a strong policy for peace, economic growth and employment in the Mediterranean, it must take greater heed of our needs and specificities. As a new entity, the Euroregion will carry weight in European debates, especially with regard to planning, transport management, environment, vocational training, tourism, innovation and research. Since culture and language are also a part of the links we share, I will give special attention to initiatives involving French and Italian youth.

Under my presidency, the Euroregion has embarked on a series of actions that have given new impetus and a new dimension to the capacities of the region I represent, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, as well as those of our partner regions. It has indeed become an asset at the service of all our citizens.

But the Euroregion is just one area of importance for the PACA region. We are also looking to the south, to the role we might play in a reinforced Euro-Mediterranean union. This has come back onto the European political agenda in recent months, but there is still a huge gulf between the political rhetoric and the reality on the ground, where tension between European and North African communities continues. The relaunched idea of a Euro-Mediterranean partnership is based on a policy of dialogue between the north and south coasts, but the results of previous discussions have so far proven relatively fruitless when it comes to facing up to the challenges of the new global economy.

Globalisation is with us whether we like it or not, and its consequences could be dire, for the Mediterranean region as much as any other. It undoubtedly brings opportunities as well, but the main effects are likely to be increasing competition and potentially serious destabilisation for those regions that are not prepared for it, particularly when it comes to employment. That is why we must act quickly. We need to give the Euro-Mediterranean partnership new impetus and put it to work to create more and better jobs, to ensure sustainable development and peace in both regions. Europe needs the Mediterranean as much as the Mediterranean needs Europe. Both regions need a concrete strategy.

The relaunched Barcelona process needs the regions if it is to succeed. The Mediterranean regions have, over the last few years, begun to forge ever closer ties between the two coasts – human, economic and cultural ties in the form of bilateral agreements. PACA, for example, has worked closely with the North African regions of Tangiers, Algiers, Tunis, Alexandria, Khan Younis, Haïfa and various communes in South Lebanon. We are working thus with the so-called Latin Arc (from Seville and Barcelona to Florence and Naples) in the north and the Mediterranean countries in the south.

Inter-regional action such as this can only be truly effective, however, as part of a broader strategy for the Mediterranean, given the constant threat of a souring of diplomatic relations between north and south over issues such as economic and social migration or the environment. That is why we need a plan for the Mediterranean region that goes above and beyond existing neighbourhood policy.

The worst outcome would be for Europe to become a fortress: in seeking to protect itself, it would weaken and fall. European values, the values of peace, solidarity and fraternity won at such cost in the battle against fascism, are likely to be best protected from the threats posed by developing economies not through throwing up barriers to immigration but through working with its Mediterranean partners to find a common ground, where peace and prosperity is accessible to everyone. In this way, the European project will return to its own roots and contribute, I believe, to making the world a fairer place.