Move to boost Euro-Med ties picks up pace

Date: 09/05/1996

By Elizabeth Wise

THE proof will be in the pudding, everyone said, when the EU announced ambitious plans for a regional trading zone covering North Africa and the Middle East.

There is no pudding yet, but there is steam coming out of the oven.

Industry ministers from the Union and the 12 nations associated with them through the Euro-Mediterranean partnership will meet later this month (20-21 May) in Brussels. Their meeting will be followed by another, of energy ministers, in Trieste next month (7-9 June).

The reunion of industry ministers will be the second meeting at ministerial level since last November's Euro-Med conference in Barcelona and follows a gathering of national culture chiefs in Bologna last month.

The process begun in Barcelona is still in its early stages and cannot point to any concrete results yet, but conference participants are cementing relationships and establishing priorities for regional cooperation.

Meetings have so far mostly revolved around arranging calendars. The Euro-Med planning committee last month agreed on a programme of annual gatherings for foreign ministers, as well as ministerial-level meetings for four different sectors each year. Experts in the various industries - transport, energy, tourism, environment, science and technology, fishing, education and communication, and regional policies - will meet on a monthly basis to prepare the meetings for their governments.

French President Jacques Chirac has even called for a Mediterranean summit, assembling the heads of state of the 27 nations whose foreign ministers met in Barcelona last November, with the aim of defining a regional zone of stability and economic development.

There are no plans to date for such a summit, but preparations are under way for a European Investment Bank (EIB) Mediterranean forum in October which will focus on trans-national projects and north-south cooperation in the banking sector.

There seems to be no problem in spreading the news.

Participating governments are taking advantage of the multiplication of contacts. Malta will host a seminar in September to educate mid-level diplomats about EU institutions and Euro-Med cooperation, while meetings in Tunis, Sicily, Venice, Naples and Amman are also filling up participants' calendars.

But so far, the business has been fairly lightweight.

Culture ministers last month agreed on the need to build a network of museums and boost tourism to promote their common heritage, but their rather vague and general declaration did not mention exchanges of students or personnel.

In the sphere of regional security, the partners are still skirting sensitive issues, anxious to avoid offending anyone before they are fully engaged in the club.

“We don't want the political issues to block the Barcelona process,” said a Commission official.

The first meeting of the political and security committee in March was deemed a success because both Syrian and Israeli officials attended, but it concentrated on “mechanics, rather than substance”, according to Antonio Badini, of the Italian foreign ministry, who chaired the gathering. Badini said he hoped the committee's May meeting would produce “concrete proposals”.

The committee did, however, agree to analyse threats together, discuss the contents of international disarmament treaties and establish a consultation system for crisis management. They even talked about inviting each other to watch military manoeuvres.

“It's the first time we've been challenged to build an institution to handle crises of the region,” said Badini.

But, Commission officials say there is still a “certain cloudiness” on the political front. While they wait for EU governments to make their political goals clear - spelling out whether they want to build a Mediterranean stability pact or some sort of security cooperation organisation - the Commission ploughs ahead with the economic side.

“For us, it's more important to consolidate structures for economic cooperation and reform,” said a Commission official.

For instance, instead of dealing immediately with the free movement of people, Euro-Med participants are starting with a discussion on free movement of goods. When goods cross borders with ease, explain EU officials, it will be easier for governments to agree that workers may cross the same frontiers.

The Mediterranean partners are also concentrating on economic cooperation, including the targeted free trade zone by 2010, and are lining up for individual trade agreements with the Union. Some, such as Morocco and Tunisia, have already put their trading relations into contracts.

Those trading pacts advance political relations as well. The Commission has asked member states to allow it to negotiate an association accord with Algeria which would cover political, economic and social cooperation as well as trade.

Although the Union's goal is to foster increased cooperation between North African and Middle East neighbours, it is also solidifying its claim to be the region's most important foreign market.

For their part, Arab countries participating in the Euro-Med process may hope that the partnership will make the Union feel more obliged than ever to be its champion in world affairs.

Arab leaders last weekend called on the EU to support them in the drive for Middle East peace and to balance the strong US bias towards Israel.

For the Union, looking for a chance to play a bigger role on the world stage, the request is welcome. And the plans laid out last autumn to link both sides of the Mediterranean may hold the key to giving the EU that role.

“Barcelona has given us margins of which we have to take advantage,” said Badini.