Paris Summit for the Mediterranean

Launched a little over a year ago by the French Head of State, the Union for the Mediterranean project, which aims to strengthen and deepen the cooperation between both sides of the Mediterrean, will be officially inaugurated on 13 July 2008 at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean, which will bring together 43 European and Mediterranean States, the Community institutions and the regional organisations.

Having acknowledged the widening disparities in the development between each side of the Mediterranean, thereby increasing the risk of instability in the whole region, the President of the French Republic, joined now by all his European and Mediterranean counterparts, has initiated given a new dynamic impetus to promote partnership in the Mediterranean. It will build on the achievements of the Barcelona Process, inaugurated 13 years ago mainly on the initiative of Spain and France, but also intends to considerably develop its aspirations, functioning and its means for action.

The Union for the Mediterranean project is based on three simple but essential principles: a political mobilisation at the highest level through Summits of Heads of State and Government every two years; a governance on an equal footing, in the form of a North-South co-presidency and a permanent secretariat with equal representation; a prioritising of concrete projects with a regional dimension that create de facto solidarity.

The Paris Summit for the Mediterranean, set to be attended by the Heads of State and Government of the 27 Member States of the European Union, the 12 Mediterranean countries which are members of the Barcelona Process and the other four countries bordering the Mediterranean, together with the heads of the largest international and regional organisations, already promises to be a major political event.

The President of the French Republic and current President of the European Council Union will welcome the participants to the Grand Palais for an afternoon of debates which will conclude in the adoption of the first main concrete projects of the Union for the Mediterranean. On the agenda for discussion are: environmental and energy problems, focusing on proposals for the de-pollution of the Mediterranean; the development of solar energy and water management; solutions to increased natural hazards and the infrastructure and transport deficit through joint civil protection programmes and the development of maritime highways; economic and social development challenges in the Mediterranean which could be partially resolved by actions to support small and medium enterprises and by support programmes for higher education and research.

This meeting will be followed by a dinner at the Petit Palais for the participants.

Deadly bombings in Algeria

A deadly double bombing near Algiers sparked fears Monday of a wave of Al-Qaeda inspired attacks in what France's foreign minister said had become a "dangerous" country.

The employer of a French engineer who was killed in the attack withdrew its other expatriate staff from Algeria after blasts which local officials said killed 13 people, though the government gave a drastically lower toll of two.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner appealed for foreign firms to stay in Algeria even though he acknowledged in a radio interview that it had become a "dangerous country".

Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean

Projects to clean up the Mediterranean Sea, establish new sea routes and highways, and harness solar energy could be at the heart of new European efforts to engage with southern neighbors, according to the first set of concrete proposals published Tuesday.

Less than two months before the debut of a new Union for the Mediterranean, pioneered by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, the European Commission sought to put its stamp on the plan with a series of recommendations.

While its call for big spending projects in the region will be welcomed in Paris, the document issued Tuesday also proposes a further dilution of Sarkozy's original aim of giving the European Union's southern states a bigger role in the venture than northern EU counterparts. ...

What is not disputed is the thinking behind the plan: that previous initiatives have largely failed. Since 1995 the EU has engaged with southern neighbors through the so-called Barcelona Process but with few tangible results.

The new document concedes that the Barcelona Process suffered from "weak visibility and the perception by citizens that little is done to tackle their daily problems and real needs." European diplomats hope the new organization, known officially as the "Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean," will give southern Mediterranean countries a greater stake because they will be on a level of parity with the EU.

Critics point out that a central problem will remain: the diverse southern Mediterranean membership, which includes Syria and Israel.

The commission said the new union should hold summit meetings every two years, but avoided endorsing any location for its headquarters. Tunis, however, has emerged as a prime candidate. The commission called for two parallel sets of co-presidencies - to be held by France for an initial six months on the EU side. Thereafter this would be held by the new president of the European Council or high representative for foreign affairs - posts established under the new Treaty of Lisbon.

The document released Tuesday called for improved maritime and road infrastructure, including new sea routes and upgraded port facilities, and a new road to link the Arab states of North Africa - Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.

The new body should reinvigorate a plan approved in 2006 to clean the Mediterranean Sea of pollution, a 2007 program to develop solar power, and a proposal for a Euro-Mediterranean free trade zone by 2010, the document said.

IHT

Sarkozy in Tunisia to sign business deals

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived Monday in the Tunisian capital Tunis to begin a three- day state visit during which he will push French business interests and try to shore up support for his plan for a Union for the Mediterranean. Sarkozy will be accompanied by his wife, Carla, seven ministers and the heads of some 120 companies, underscoring the economic importance of relations between the two countries.

France is by far Tunisia's most important trading partner, with bilateral commerce reaching some 7 billion euros (10.94 billion dollars) in 2007.

A number of deals, worth about 2 billion euros, are expected to be finalized Monday evening, between Sarkozy's meeting with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and a scheduled state dinner.

The contracts to be signed include the sale of Airbus aircraft to Tunisian carrier Tunisair and for the construction of a conventional power station by the French firm Alstom at Ghannouch, in southern Tunisia.

EADS unit Airbus has signed a firm order for the sale of 13 aircraft and an option for two others to Tunisian carrier Tunisair, the French presidency said in a statement.

France, Morocco economic partnership deals

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Friday announced the signing of a raft of economic tie-ups with Morocco, alongside the sale of a naval warship to aid defence coordination.

"France is to sell a FREMM (European Multi-Mission Frigate) to Morocco," Fillon told a press conference in Rabat. "It is identical to those in the French fleet, which will make cross-naval cooperation straightforward." The agreements were originally reached in October during President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit, with the frigate contract compensating Paris after the collapse of a deal to buy Rafale fighter aircraft from French manufacturers Dassault.

The other major element was a grant of 75 million euros (120 million dollars) for a feasability study on a high-speed rail line between Tangiers, across the Gibralter Straits from Spain, and Casablanca on the Atlantic coast. The line would plug into France's TGV network, already extended across European borders, and Fillon said that during their lunchtime meeting, King Mohammed VI expressed his desire to see it extended inland to Marrakech.

France will also loan Morocco 150 million euros for the installation of a tram network in the capital Rabat, with two French companies -- Alstom and Colas -- having been chosen for the engineering project.

Judicial and social conventions make up the remainder of the package signed in the presence of Fillon's counterpart, Abbas El Fassi. Fillon said the ninth Franco-Moroccan intergovernmental seminar had shown that there is "not the slightest disagreement between France and Morocco" and that the two countries had a shared outlook which was "perfect".

AFP

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

Merkel Slams Sarko's Med Union Scheme

The German Chancellor warns Sarkozy his proposal for a Mediterranean union of European, North African, and Middle Eastern nations would hurt the EU
German chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that French plans for a Mediterranean Union risk splitting the EU. Speaking at a conference in Berlin on Wednesday (5 December), Ms Merkel indicated that if French president Nicolas Sarkozy pushed ahead with his proposals for a union of countries from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa the "core" of the European Union would be threatened.

The chancellor said that "cooperation between some member states has to be also open to the rest and it has to be approved by all member states." It cannot be that some countries establish a Mediterranean Union and fund this with money from EU coffers, said the German leader. "This could release explosive forces in the union I would not like," she said, according to news agency DPA.

Mr Sarkozy floated the idea for such a union during his presidential campaign earlier this year. Since becoming president in May, he has elaborated on the proposal saying in October that "in the Mediterranean will be decided whether or not civilisations and religions will wage the most terrible of wars...whether or not the North and the South will clash".

Under the plans, the group would tie southern Europe with Northern Africa as well as Israel and its Arab neighbours and tackle topical issues such as counter-terrorism, immigration, energy, trade, water and sustainable development. Just seven EU states -- Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain -- are envisioned to take part.
Mr Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union idea -- he suggested on Wednesday that France and Algeria be the main axis of the Union -- has also raised eyebrows in Brussels. The European Commission fears it will undermine the 12-year-old Barcelona process, aimed at promoting dialogue between the EU and ten countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

There are also fears that it is a ruse to enmesh Turkey – which would be a member – into the process and detract from its current EU negotiations, with Mr Sarkozy being strongly opposed to Ankara's EU membership bid.

Business Week

Mediterranean Union proposal 'to focus on projects'

France has apparently switched to reverse gear over its controversial proposal to launch a Mediterranean Union, with one senior official saying it will focus on concrete projects and function on a purely voluntary basis. Turkey in particular had criticised the idea as offering a disguised alternative to full EU membership.

EU foreign affairs ministers gave a "positive" reception to Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to launch a Mediterranean Union but only "if it can bring added value to what is already happening in the framework of EuroMed", said a senior French official on a visit to Brussels on 8 November. "The project…does not aim to be a substitute for the EuroMed partnership," the official said in a debriefing to journalists after a meeting of Euro-Mediterranean Foreign Affairs ministers in Lisbon last week.

The proposal, first aired by Nicolas Sarkozy during the presidential campaign, is still at drafting stage with a paper due to be presented to the Commission this month. But the idea had raised concerns in Ankara after Sarkozy said he favoured a "privileged partnership" with Turkey instead of full EU membership. "[The Mediterranean Union] is not an alternative to EU accession, I say it in a very clear manner," said the senior official, who was speaking off the record.

Concerning practical arrangements, he said the proposed Union would be assisted by "a light secretariat" but that the overall structure "should stay light, based on projects only". "Union is a symbolic term more than a reality," he added, in an apparent departure from earlier suggestions by Sarkozy to establish a permanent EuroMed council similar to the Council of Europe.

Specific project steering bodies would be set up on an ad hoc basis, he explained, saying that they will seek involvement of companies based on the public-private partnerships model. He cited water management, coastline protection, SME policy and civil protection as examples of possible agencies.

Funding for individual projects would be provided by international organisations such as the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and other regional organisations in the Gulf area. EU funds would only be used "in respect of community criteria" and as a complement to existing programmes, he said.

Voluntary participation by sovereign states would be the "core" of the Union, the official said, insisting that the European Commission would be a full member along with the Arab League. A conference of Mediterranean heads of state and government, to take place in 2008, could be followed up by regular meetings in a sort of "G-Med".

Euractive

Egypt, too choses nuclear

Egypt's president announced plans Monday to build several nuclear power plants — the latest in a string of ambitious such proposals from moderate Arab countries. The United States immediately welcomed the plan, in a sharp contrast to what it called nuclear "cheating" by Iran.

President Hosni Mubarak said the aim was to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve its oil and gas reserves for future generations. In a televised speech, he pledged Egypt would work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency at all times and would not seek a nuclear bomb. But Mubarak also made clear there were strategic reasons for the program, calling secure sources of energy "an integral part of Egypt's national security system."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. would not object to the program as long as Egypt adhered to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines.

Jordan, Turkey and several Gulf Arab countries have announced in recent months that they are interested in developing nuclear power programs, and Yemen's government signed a deal with a U.S. company in September to build civilian nuclear plants over the next 10 years.

Algeria also signed a cooperation accord with the United States on civil nuclear energy in June, and Morocco announced a deal last week under which France will help develop nuclear reactors there.

AP

EU should inform Turkey of defence plans

France wants the European Union to keep Turkey better informed about its military plans in a bid to end a dispute blocking cooperation between the EU and NATO, diplomats said on Friday.

NATO member Turkey is holding up efforts by the two institutions to coordinate separate security missions in the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo in protest at what it says is the EU's failure to consult it properly on defence matters. The French proposal would provide Ankara with greater information about EU defence planning without giving it a say in decision-making, diplomats familiar with the initiative said.

Reactions to any proposal is unclear given Ankara's declaration that it is preparing to make military incursions into northern Iraq to battle some 3,000 Kurdish rebels who use the area as a base to fight for an independent homeland.The U.S. has urged Ankara not to take unilateral action. The EU, which Turkey wants to join, has also cautioned against such moves.

Turkey says the EU is not living up to a promise made at an October 2002 summit to have "permanent and continuing consultations with the non-EU European allies, covering the full range of security, defence and crisis management issues".

It also accuses non-NATO EU member Cyprus of vetoing its bid to become an associate member of the European Defence Agency, the body coordinating reforms of the EU's defence sectors. That issue is not explicitly addressed by the French initiative.

"It should not be just on paper but should mean concrete steps. But that doesn't mean this is not a positive development, coming from a major EU state," said one Turkish source."We want to become more involved in European security and development policy and so we think there should be better modalities (for us to do so)."

Sonatrach declares not to be affected by EU energy plans

Algeria reiterated on Saturday it is not concerned by European Union's proposals to end the monopoly on its gas and electricity market, saying it aims to remain a major supplier to Europe.

The comments by Mohamed Meziane, Chief Executive Officer of state-owned energy firm Sonatrach, came a week after Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said the EU's plans would not affect his country's state-owned oil and gas firm.

"Until now, we see nothing indicating that the plans would affect Sonatrach. We need to wait and see the regulation which will be adopted," Meziane told state radio. "Sonatrach wants to be present in supplying the European gas market, which is our natural market," he added.

The European Union executive this month adopted proposals aimed at forcing big utilities such as Germany's E.ON and Electricite de France to separate power generation from their distribution networks.

The new rules will also bar foreign firms from controlling European energy networks unless they play by EU rules and their home country reaches an agreement with Brussels, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said. Algeria is a major supplier of gas to Europe, particularly Spain, Italy and France. Its current output is estimated at 62 billion cubic metres per year, and is expected to reach 85 billion per year by 2015.

Reuters

Archimedes launched

Archimedes (so-called from the initials of its full name – Actions to Regenerate Cities and Help Innovative Mediterranean Economic Development Enhancing Sustainability) is one of nine projects taking place in the framework of the MED-PACT regional programme which is dedicated to cooperation among local authorities on the Southern and Northern shores of the Mediterranean. Its specific objectives are to assist the EU’s Mediterranean partner countries to ensure a more balanced and durable local development, via partnerships between cities and to promote better municipal planning and management.

The MED-PACT programme falls within the framework of the Barcelona Process which aims at promoting prosperity, democracy, stability and security in the Mediterranean basin. MED-PACT is a partnership programme between local authorities in the Mediterranean with a BUDGET of €5 million. Start Date: 2006 Duration: 3 years.

The MED-PACT programme meets a Committee of the Regions request in a 2003 Opinion for the need to support cooperation between local authorities within the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. It also meets one of the main recommendations of the Naples December 2003 Foreign Affairs Ministerial Conference of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership which called for the promotion of civil society partnerships in the region to give greater substance to the Barcelona Process.

The main objective of the programme is to encourage better understanding between civil society in the north and the south of the Mediterranean by developing cooperation, exchanges and dialogue between cities.

The specific objectives are:

• to assist the EU’s Mediterranean partner countries to ensure a more balanced and durable local development, via partnerships between cities
• to promote better municipal planning and management, involving all the city’s actors as necessary

Link

France ready to open up to Syria

France is prepared to open up in a "spectacular way" to Syria if it stops meddling in Lebanon, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

Kouchner stated he hoped Damascus would "not create obstacles to Lebanon's sovereignty" when it holds presidential elections next month. "If Syria does not create obstacles to Lebanon's sovereignty ... then France will open up to Damascus in a spectacular way," Kouchner told Le Parisien newspaper. "But for this to happen, we would need guarantees," he added.
The Lebanese parliament is expected to elect a new president between September 24 and November 24. Meanwhile, Kouchner did not rule out visiting Tehran. "Why not, if it can be useful to advance peace?" he said. But he added that France remained adamant in demanding that Tehran give up its nuclear plans, saying a nuclear-armed Iran would pose "a great danger."