EU-Middle East relations further soured at summit

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 01/12/05

The EU this week fought to dispel accusations that its relations with the Arab world are in freefall, despite the failure to agree a common declaration at the tenth anniversary summit of the Euromed partnership, which ended in Barcelona on Monday (28 November).

Although the statement was eventually dropped because of a dispute between Arab and Israeli representatives, other proposals were watered down after swathes of criticism from Arab leaders.

Negotiations on the Middle East peace process, fighting terrorism and promoting democracy were described by one diplomat as "long and acrimonious".

Israeli diplomats rejected allegations that their decision to reject language on the peace process agreed in May was the cause of the disagreement.

"Barcelona is not and was not meant to be a forum for solving the Middle East Peace Process," said an Israeli spokesperson in Brussels.

But the failure of the summit was compounded by the decision of many leaders not to attend.

Only three leaders from the ten countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean attended.

EU diplomats sought to play down talk of a rupture in relations with the Arab world, citing agreements on democracy promotion, which the US failed to secure at a recent meeting in Bahrain, and on fighting terrorism.

One diplomat said: "It was the opposite of normal. Normally, it is a nice family photo with little substance, this time it was an ugly family photo with a lot of substance.

"We have a code of conduct [on fighting terrorism], there are a lot of things that we can go away and work with."

But despite progress in the political and security aspects of Euromed, questions remain over how far future co-operation can go.

Article reports from the Euromed Tenth Anniversary Summit, 27-28 November 2005, Barcelona.

EEAS: Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EUROMED) http://eeas.europa.eu/euromed/index_en.htm

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