New EU chair slams French plan for Med Union

New European Union presidency holder Slovenia criticised on Wednesday a plan by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to create a Mediterranean Union linking states from both sides of the sea.

Outlining to the European Parliament Slovenia's priorities for its six-month term in the EU chair, the first by a former communist new member state, Prime Minister Janez Jansa said he wanted to promote existing ties with Mediterranean countries. "We do not however need a duplication of institutions, or institutions that would compete with the EU, institutions that would cover part of the EU and part of the neighbourhood," he said in a direct reference to the French plan.

France, which succeeds Slovenia in the presidency, has said it plans to stage a summit in July to launch a Mediterranean Union, which critics initially saw as an attempt to create an alternative to Turkey's bid for full membership of the EU. Details of the French plan are sketchy but officials have said it would include the EU member states on the northern shore of the Mediterranean and non-EU countries on the eastern and southern shores. But Jansa said: "The EU is a whole, a single entity, and only as such can it be a help in establishing peace, stability and progress in our neighbourhood and in the broader context. Hopefully our friends in Paris will not hold this against us, but we also want to lead Europe with a vision," he added. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also expressed strong misgivings about Sarkozy's proposal, saying it had the potential to divide the EU.

Diplomats said it was hard to imagine that the proposed union could have access to substantial EU funds for Mediterranean economic, social, security and cultural programmes if all EU member states were not members of the organisation.

Reuters