Morocco decision frustrates EU

Date: 30/10/1997

By Mark Turner

MOROCCO's decision to cancel a Europe-Mediterranean meeting of industry ministers planned for this week in Marrakesh is a stark example of how the flagging Middle East peace process is damaging European business interests.

Moroccan officials blame Israel for the decision, claiming its “continued obstruction of the peace process means that a number of Arab states have refused to meet representatives from Jerusalem”.

In practice, the cancellation means that EU-Mediterranean rules on trade and investment will simply have to wait.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lurches from public relations fiasco to diplomatic blunder, Rabat's decision is understandable. Anything which could be interpreted as giving political support to Israel's administration would be next to impossible to sell at home in Arab countries, and King Hassan of Morocco is reportedly furious with Netanyahu's recent behaviour. It probably does not help that Moroccans go to the polls next month.

However, given that European officials preparing the Marrakesh meeting were well aware of its potential pitfalls weeks before Rabat's announcement - but were given no hint of the impending decision at a key meeting in Palermo a fortnight ago - the EU is not happy about the last-minute change of plan.

Exasperated diplomats say they wish that the region could, just for once, put aside its political difficulties and focus on commercial issues.

“As far as we are concerned, the cancellation came very late. We had already agreed to declarations on industrial cooperation and investment, and hoped the participants would not stray from the issues,” said a European expert, adding: “We had all known for a long time that the Middle Eastern peace process could cause problems for the conference: why didn't someone cancel the meeting earlier?”

Critics maintain, however, that the Union can hardly complain at the consequences of a dying peace process, given its failure to give it any real support.

Privately, the Middle Eastern players admit that the EU has shown no real inclination to sort out the mess, with all sides still - for better or for worse - relying on American mediation.

That is not to say that the Union has done nothing. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jacques Poos did manage to bring Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy together at a meeting of foreign ministers this summer, and EU envoy Miguel Moratinos has made big play of his 'code of conduct' to keep talks on track.

But in terms of effective intervention, Europe's record is weak. “Both the Israelis and the Palestinians would like to pretend they have a European card up their sleeves, but it really amounts to nothing,” said Oren Nahari, foreign news editor of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority, recently.

When EU foreign ministers tried to determine how the Union could be more effective in the conduct of foreign policy, at an informal meeting last weekend, using the Middle East as a case-study, the outcome of their talks was all too familiar.

Instead of announcing a practical EU initiative, they chose instead to send a presidency delegation to the country and declare their intention to “reinforce our cooperation with the United States with the aim of getting a just and durable solution to the conflict”.

The irony is that, on an administrative level, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has in many ways done more for Middle Eastern diplomacy than any high-level political push.

Despite Euro-Med's funding problems, often tortuous progress and a tendency to generate bad press, the simple fact that officials from Israel and the Arab world have met regularly is little short of miraculous. A private meeting of EU, Israeli and Palestinian politicians this week was also a coup.

The challenge for Europe, say commentators, is to give this pragmatic approach a media-friendly public face.

Unfortunately, is precisely the lack of public attention which allows low-level diplomatic contacts to be made. As soon as politicians and cameras are involved, as in Marrakesh, the whole process comes skidding to a halt.

The EU will probably have to live with its obscurity for some time longer.