| |
Sarkozy’s Mediterranean Union
Comment / Patrick Seale
PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy of France believes passionately in a
Mediterranean Union, and is putting a great deal of energy - and
urgency - into bringing it to birth. Heads of state and government
of 43 potential member states have been invited to attend a summit
meeting on 13 July, when they are expected to issue a ringing
declaration formally launching the Union.
For extra solemnity, the summit will be held in the grandiose
setting of the Grand Palais, a vast ironwork and glass structure,
built in the heart of Paris for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.
In the meantime, planning for the launch is in the hands of a
high-powered French team, led by Ambassador Alain Leroy, which
Sarkozy has housed under his direct supervision at 23 Avenue Marigny,
a former Rothschild mansion just across the street from the Elyse
Palace.
What exactly is the proposed Mediterranean Union about, and why the
urgency? The Mediterranean lies at the centre of Sarkozy’s
geo-political vision. “The Mediterrean,” he likes to say, “is not
our past but our future”, in the sense that he believes that many of
Europe’s most acute problems can be solved only in close
coordination with the countries on the other side of the sea. This
vision has led him to undertake several state visits to North
Africa.
The problems he has in mind are familiar ones which have been much
debated: terrorism; illegal immigration; pollution of the sea
affecting tourism and fisheries; scarcity of fresh water; rampant
unemployment and over-population in the South; desertification which
is spreading to countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece; and a
widening of the already wide gap in personal incomes between North
and South.
In other words, Europe’s security and prosperity can only be assured
if the countries bordering the Mediterranean also enjoy security and
prosperity - but this requires a major joint initiative by both
North and South. Behind this thinking is a sense that since the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Western Europe has tended to neglect
its southern flank while devoting much aid and attention to the
countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Sarkozy’s Mediterranean Union project faced early objections from
German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She feared that he was planning to
include only France, Spain and Italy in the proposed Mediterranean
Union, excluding all other European Union member states. This
problem was resolved when it was agreed that all 27 members of the
EU would be members of the Union pour la Mediterranée (UPM). They
will be joined by the countries bordering the Mediterranean, as well
as by Jordan and Mauritania - 43 countries in all.
Turkey was alarmed because Sarkozy’s plan was first billed as a
device to keep Turkey out of the EU by offering it the alternative
of membership of the UPM. Turkish anxieties have since been
partially allayed by its proposed participation in some of the major
economic projects Sarkozy hopes to initiate.
More than a decade ago, the Barcelona Process was launched in 1995,
precisely in the hope that European money would help resolve
political conflicts among the states bordering the Mediterranean,
leading to economic development - and thus to preventing the import
into Western Europe of terrorism and unwanted migrants.
But the Barcelona Process has been a failure - or at least only a
very partial success. It was launched at a time of high
expectations. The Madrid Conference of 1991 and the Oslo Accords of
1993 seemed to open the way to a settlement of the Arab-Israeli
conflict. But these expectations were soon disappointed.
The assassination of Israel’s prime minister Yitzak Rabin by a
Jewish fanatic in November 1995 put an end to peace-making. It was
followed instead by a period of heightened Arab-Israeli tension and
violence. This in turn has contributed to the rise of militant
Islamic movements, to the terrorist attacks on America of September
11, 2001, to neo-colonial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to a
dangerous, and still un-bridged, rift between the West and the Arab
and Islamic world. Against these odds, the Barcelona Process could
make little headway.
One should add that another reason the Barcelona Process failed was
because it was undermined by the conflict between Morocco and
Algeria over the Western Sahara, which prevented the creation of a
single market in North Africa and thus discouraged inward investment
into the region.
Over time, the Barcelona Process came to be seen as a doomed
paternalistic project, launched by European governments for their
own selfish purposes, with little input from countries in the east
and south of the Mediterranean.
Sarkozy’s strategy today is to reverse the objectives. Instead of
pressing for the resolution of political conflicts as a preliminary
to economic development, his approach is to start with major
economic projects in the belief that they will, in time, yield
political dividends.
Among the projects now being discussed on both sides of the
Mediterranean is a scheme to clean up - or de-pollute - the sea by
2020, with a first-stage investment of $2 billion. Another scheme,
dear to Egypt, is to create a high-speed shipping route between
Alexandria and Tangiers - a sort of maritime motorway. There are
plans to harness solar energy for the Mediterranean region, and to
manage scarce water resources more efficiently, so as to provide
drinking water for all and a better use of waste water for
irrigation.
The French are particularly keen on creating a unified Mediterranean
scientific and university “space”, in which professional training
will be provided for managers, scientists and technicians, so as to
improve agriculture and fisheries, and check the relentless advance
of desertification. Plans are also being prepared for a
Mediterranean civil protection centre, for an agency to promote
small and medium sized industries, for a possible Mediterranean
bank, and much else besides.
Unlike the Barcelona Process, the idea this time is fully to involve
the populations of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, to seek
the participation of private sector interests and civil society
associations, as well as financing not only from European
governments and institutions, but also from the oil-rich countries
of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The idea is that the Mediterranean lies at the centre of a vast
region extending from Africa to the Gulf. The calculation is that a
healthy and prosperous Mediterranean will reinforce the position of
Europe in the world and allow European to play a greater role in
advancing the cause of peace in the Middle East.
“The objective of the Mediterranean Union is political,” Ambassador
Leroy says, “but it is driven by economics. We cannot wait for
conflicts to be resolved before launching our projects. But the
Union will launch a process which will, it is hoped, help solve the
political conflicts”. He adds that the great project of the European
Union - 27 member states and a combined population of 495 million -
started with the modest Coal and Steel Community. Sarkozy is
determined to make the Mediterranean Union one of the great
achievements of his presidency. It remains to be seen whether the
injection of his redoubtable political will can make the ambitious
project a reality.
— Gulf News
|
