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Poor
show at Euromed's 10th birthday's party
The Euro-Mediterranean
Summit was summoned on 28 November 2005 in Barcelona to celebrate
the 10th anniversary of the Barcelona Process, launched on
28 November 1995 in the Catalan city. Ten fact that ten years
after 25 ministries and heads of states and governments had
signed a joint ministerial declaration, only a lame 'statement
by the chairman' closed a conference with only two due high
ranking delegations attending it ( Turkey and the Palestinians),
gives the dimension of the 'great success' that Chairman Tony
Blair ascribed to the recent Barcelona gathering.
As opposed
to the 'à la carte' principle of the Action Plans developed
under the newly-established European Neighbourhood Policy,
the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) was designed according
to an 'en bloc' concept. The aim was to make the most of promising
political conditions prevalent in 1995, following the Madrid
Peace Conference and the signing of the 'Oslo Accords' in
1991 and 1993 respectively. These conditions, which nourished
hope for a lasting peace in the Middle East, created the momentum
to gave the EMP a prominent regional dimension, embodied most
notably in the goal of a free-trade area, to be established
by 2010, and in the 'general objective of turning the Mediterranean
basin into an area of dialogue, exchange and cooperation guaranteeing
peace and stability'.
The 'statement
of the chairman' includes a Five-Year Work Program for the
development of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership for the
next five years, and a Code of Conduct on Countering Terrorism,
which denounces terrorism 'in all its forms and manifestations'
and outlines plans to coordinate anti-terror operations.
The Work
program invests the three baskets of the Euro-Mediterranean
Partnership, namely political and security, economic, and
cultural partnership.
As for the Political aspects, the 35 spokespersons of the
Members of the Euro-Med Partnership agreed on broad objectives
aiming at strengthening pluralism and participation by citizens,
notably of women, freedom of association and expression. To
achieve these objectives, the Work Program foresees the creation
of financial Facility 'to support willing Mediterranean Partners
in carrying out their reforms'. As for the Security case of
the political and security partnership, the document encourages
cooperation, but only on a voluntary basis, on 'partnership
building measures and crisis management activities, and also
on civil protection and natural disaster prevention'.
To tackle terrorism, which the UK presidency put at the top
of the agenda, a Code of Conduct on Countering Terrorism was
drafted. Due to disagreement among EU and Med partners, the
Code condemns terrorism but does not elaborate further. The
result was a compromise between the EU and Arab nations, whereby
the EU dropped its insistence that the right to self-determination
did not justify terrorism, while Arab countries dropped their
demands for recognition of a right to resist foreign occupation
- a clear reference to the Palestinian situation.
As for
the economic basket, the Work Program reiterated the commitment
to creating more job opportunities, reducing poverty rates
and raising GDP growth rates. In particular, the summit agreed
on drafting a road map designed to speed up a progressive
liberalisation of trade in agriculture, a very sensitive issue
to Arab's states, which need to export agricultural goods
at competitive rates. The path towards liberalization - the
document stated - shall be implemented having as guiding principle
asymmetrical implementation and the reduction of non tariff
barriers to trade. To this end, the Council of the EU had
already adopted, on 15 November 2005, a decision authorizing
the Commission to open negotiations with its Mediterranean
partner countries to further open up trade in fresh and processed
agricultural and fisheries products. In order to approximate
standards, technical legislation and conformity assessment,
and in view of the elimination of technical barriers to commerce,
Euro-Med representatives agreed to provide support and assistance
to the negotiations of Acceptance and Cooperation Assessment
Agreements on Industrial Products (ACAAs), to be reached by
2010.
The work program also advocated the acceleration of the conclusion
of free trade agreements, and promoted other regional agreements
and bilateral trade agreements. Notably, it stressed that
the entry into force of the Agadir Agreement shall take place
at the latest by the end of 2005.
The final
document also advocated the implementation of sub-regional
energy projects to promote a Euro-Mediterranean energy market,
including, among others, the integration of Middle East gas
networks, energy co-operation between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority (like the 'Palacio deal') and several pipeline connections.
To support private initiatives, the meeting launched a 45
million euro (52.6 million dollar) risk capital investment
fund for Maghreb-region firms, rising to a potential 100 million
euros.
Euro-Med
cooperation under the socio-cultural partnership was advocated
in the fields of education, cultural exchanges and migration.
As for the latter, the instruments to achieve a shared solution
of the common problems posed by illegal instruments are delegated
to Ministerial meetings, mechanisms of practical co-operation
and sharing experience, negotiations to 'different kinds'
of readmission agreements, and cooperation between Euromed
police bodies.
As for
cooperation in education, the Work program advocates to 'halve
the number of illiterate female and male adults and children
by 2010', ensure equality of access to quality education at
all levels for girl and boy students by 2015 and to ensure
that by 2015 all children complete at least primary education.
To this end, the Euromediterranean partners committed to 'enhance,
increase, expand and strenghten' cooperation in policies on
education. The parties also looked favourably on the need
to 'introduce a standard of university education qualification
transferable within the Euro-Mediterranean region', 'encourage
distance education and electronic communications' and 'to
promote exchanges and mobility between people at all levels,
notably students.
For the
record, the meeting came to a stalemate, when the debate tackled
terrorism, and strove to provide it with a 'definition'. Arab
leaders were reportedly frustrated by the fact that the fight
against terrorism and immigration had dominated the summit
agenda, reports the Cairo-based al-Ahram newspaper.
Some Arab leaders vent out their anger at what they saw as
Europe's patronizing attitude towards its Muslim partners.
The Algerian minister of state, Abdelaziz Belkhadem said he
found it 'humiliating that the Europeans demand reforms from
us in exchange for a few euros', reports AFP.
During the conference, Israel's deputy Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert met with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Egyptian
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. No meetings were held by Israeli
and Syrian representatives.
E.M.
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