Sustainable growth in Tunisia

Tunisia had spent around 0.6 percent of its GDP in supporting the companies affected by the global financial crisis, Mr Mohamed Ghannouchi , Tunisia's prime minister, said during Emerging Markets Summit in London organized by Economist.

At the beginning of the current year, Tunisia set up a strategy to cope with the international crisis. As part of this vision, measures have been taken to help the national enterprises to preserve the growth of the Tunisian economy, Mr Ghannouchi told Global Arab Network in an interview on the sideline of the summit.

Mr Ghannouchi added: “one more important programme of investments established in order to develop modern motorway, wide railway network, construct 2 power stations of 400 MW each, build an oil refinery in south of the country, launch a phosphate plant and create a deep-waters seaport.

All these investments were spent with the purpose of boosting local demand and offer better business opportunities. The prime minister assured that his government is working to integrate Tunisia's economy into global market by implementing a programme with support of the European Union’s fund, World Bank and the African Development Bank.

The aims of this programme are to make sure that all businesses are able to reduce transaction costs, optimise foreign trade measures and improve access to financial market. Moreover, Tunisia empowered business environment to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) to its expanding sectors such as information and communication technologies, health, car industry, and electronics.

Mr Ghannouchi told Reuters News Agency “Tunisia's growth is likely to reach 3-3.5 percent this year and at least 4 percent in 2010. Before (the global crisis) we were on a path to grow 6 percent, this year our growth will be between 3 and 3.5 percent,” "In comparison with -4.0 percent for Europe, it is still positive and encouraging," Ghannouchi said.

Tunisia was looking for growth of 4 percent in 2010, he said, but a further improvement in the global outlook would help the domestic picture. He said, "We can do even better if the world recovery is faster."

Ghannouchi said that the country was trying to diversify its exports, with more direction towards Africa and the Maghreb region, the Middle East and North Africa. Tunisia, the North African country of 10 million people, relies on exports of manufactured goods and services, mostly to the European Union.

He said the government planned to make its currency, the dinar, fully convertible. "I do hope to make sure it's converted as soon as reachable. We have made a lot of progress in that area."

Ghannouchi continued that he hoped international institutions would move fast to disburse an extra $850 billion in resources decided for the International Monetary Fund at the G20 Summit April 2009. "We hope the measures agreed in London will be implemented effectively and as soon as possible."
He said that the trade exchange forces had been seriously shaken by the international financial crisis. The recession, which strongly hit the developed countries, had found its reflection in a great decline of foreign demand and a drop of approximately 12% of the world goods and services trade, compared with a sustainable growth during the last 25 years.
Ghannouchi stressed during the conference that he would like to see closer cooperation between European Union and MENA region. He emphasized that 1% growth in the southern Mediterranean countries reflected in 0.2 percent growth in the north-bank of the Mediterranean.
The Union for the Mediterranean, a project of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was launched last year as a platform for regular gatherings among its 43 countries, with the EU providing financial and technical support to accelerate reforms and develop closer ties. "We want the union to come into practice immediately, as strong sign, in order to establish more harmonious policies between South and North of the Mediterranean and eventually to achieve collective prosperity," Ghannouchi concluded.

Despite the global crisis, Tunisia has managed to preserve its economy, maintain the growth and retain the lead among the North African countries, according to the World Economic Forum Report 2009/2010. These achievements place Tunisia among the emerging countries as a model of success.

Global arab network

Syria Recognizes Lebanon's Sovereignty After 60 Years

Syria and Lebanon established diplomatic relations on Oct. 15, some 60 years after gaining independence from France in the mid-1940s.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, who signed the declaration jointly with Syrian Foreign Minister Waleed al-Muallem, said Lebanese-Syrian relations were friendlier than ever.

Syrian politicians, along with a majority of their Lebanese counterparts, say the exchange of embassies is only a formality between the two brotherly states. This may be so, but the fact remains that Syria has never considered Lebanon a sovereign state. On the other hand, it saw Lebanon as an inalienable part of "Greater Syria," which once included the territory of modern Lebanon.

It is true that Syria has played a positive role in Lebanon's recent history, in particular during the 1975-1990 civil war. It deployed 35,000 soldiers to Lebanon to disengage the warring sides and prevent the country's disintegration. However, the Syrians did not leave after the civil war ended, but remained in Lebanon "to keep the peace" until 2005.

This is why some Lebanese see their "Syrian brothers" as liberators, while others curse them as occupiers. Moreover, the ruling Lebanese clans have changed their attitude toward Syria more than once, at times seeing them as friends, and other times as enemies.

Bilateral relations were most recently shattered after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. The West immediately blamed the murder on Syria's military intelligence chief, Assef Shawkat, and declared a boycott of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria's isolation lasted until French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared, at the Mediterranean Union Summit held in Paris last July and attended by the Syrian president, that Syria and Lebanon should establish diplomatic relations.

However, the two countries reconciled only when Lebanon elected a new president, Michel Suleiman, a figure of compromise between the pro-Western majority in parliament – the Mustaqbal movement led by Saad Hariri, the son of the assassinated Rafik Hariri – and the opposition Hezbollah movement, backed by Syrian and Iranian Shiites.

This compromise has cost the pro-Western forces in Lebanon dearly, given that, at a meeting in Doha last May, they gave the opposition the right to veto bills. At the same time, a national unity government of 30 ministers was formed, in which 16 represent the ruling coalition, 11 the opposition, and three are appointed by the president.

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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.

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.

EU leaders agree to weakened Mediterranean Union plan

EU leaders approved a watered-down version of a plan put forward by French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a grand Mediterranean Union stretching from Morocco to Turkey and aiming to foster cooperation with the EU's southern neighbours.

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa called the proposal an "upgrade of the Barcelona process" – the mechanism currently regulating the relations between the EU and the Mediterranean countries – and said it had received support during the EU leaders' meeting in Brussels.

An agreement was reached to launch the project as soon as possible, "with the principle that all member states will participate," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also said.

Mr Sarkozy also rejected claims that his initial proposal had been considerably weakened, saying that it was not very different from what was eventually agreed upon. There is still one secretariat, a joint north-south presidency, and periodical summit meetings foreseen, so "I do not think I have renounced anything," he said, adding that he was happy the principle of a closer partnership with the Mediterranean countries "was taken up with great enthusiasm" by the other member states, as the "Barcelona [process] simply did not work".

The proposal sparked ideas for other EU states as well, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying that the EU should now commit more to eastern states, particularly Ukraine, which should be given a clear European perspective."We accept this agreement in general, but we also have our own proposal about Ukraine," he said.

Meanwhile, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said that key points, such as what exactly the role of the new Mediterranean set up would be, remained unanswered and suggested the French president was working to reach national goals above all. "It is obvious that Sarkozy wants to make a name for himself during the French presidency and is focusing on a subject in which he has an economic interest," Mr Topolanek was quoted as saying by CNN.

French, Italian, Spanish leaders back Mediterranean Union plan

France, Italy and Spain united behind a planned Mediterranean Union on Thursday, announcing a July summit in Paris of the countries bordering the sea. French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the July 13 summit at a joint news conference in Rome with the Italian and Spanish prime ministers, Romano Prodi and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The three leaders earlier discussed the plan to establish an EU-type union of the zone in talks in the Italian capital. "Convinced that the Mediterranean, crucible of culture and civilisation, should resume its role as a zone of peace, prosperity and tolerance," the three leaders said they had met to "think about the broad outlines of a planned union for the Mediterranean."

The bloc "would have a mission to reunite Europe and Africa around the countries along the Mediterranean rim and to set up a partnership on an equal footing between the countries" north and south of the sea, they said.

"The added value of the Mediterranean Union should reside first in the political boost it should give to cooperation around the Mediterranean and the mobilisation of civil societies, businesses, local communities, associations and NGOs (non-governmental organisations)," the statement said.
The Paris summit will precede by a day an EU summit on July 14 in Brussels. The Mediterranean Union will focus on "peace, development and respect for the environment," Sarkozy said separately. "It's a great dream, a great vision, which I'm sure can be realised. We three have decided that this will be a united Mediterranean, a war against despair."

Sarkozy advocates the grouping partly as an alternative to Turkish membership of the European Union. Italy favours Ankara's entry into the EU. The plan also comes against the backdrop of attacks in Algeria, and other north African states on the Mediterranean, by the group calling itself Al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb (BAQMI).

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

An alleged weapon-deal with Lybia?

International Herald Tribune

EADS confirms it is selling military equipment to Libya

European Aeronautic Defense & Space confirmed Friday that it was close to signing two weapons contracts with the government of Libya, which would be the first arms deal with the North African country since the European Union lifted military sanctions nearly three years ago.
Word of the contracts, worth €296 million, or $405 million, by some reports, came just a week after President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and his wife, Cécilia, visited Tripoli, visits that contributed to the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had spent more than eight years in prison for supposedly deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS. The case had long strained Libya's relations with the European Union.

EADS the huge aerospace and weapons manufacturer, parent of Airbus, also said it was close to completing the sale of a secure radio communications system to the Libyan military. French media reports valued the deals at €168 million and €128 million, respectively, citing unidentified Libyan officials. EADS declined to attach a value to the deal and said the two contracts had yet to be signed.

The French government denied Friday that any direct bargain for weapons contracts had been made with Libya to secure the release of the medics during Sarkozy's visit.

The timing of the announcement has already begun to tarnish Sarkozy's diplomatic coup over the medics, which has been seen as paving the way to a normalization of political and economic relations between Libya and the international community. Critics in France focused on Sarkozy's statement that there had been no quid pro quo to obtain the release of the medics held by the Libyans.

It was no doubt an embarrassment to French officials, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, Muammar el-Qaddafi, disclosed the contracts in an interview published Thursday in Le Monde. He said that the French and Libyan governments had been negotiating the deal "for a long time" but that during Sarkozy's visit, the Libyans had asked him to "accelerate things." "Now that the case of the nurses is settled, a golden opportunity has arisen," the newspaper quoted Saif Qaddafi as saying.

He suggested that further deals with French companies were also possible and said that representatives of the defense electronics groups Thales and Sagem were then in Libya. Spokesmen for the companies declined to comment.

Sarkozy sounds out basis for Mediterranean Union

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stepped up efforts to gain support for his idea of a 'Mediterranean Union' in a visit to Algeria and Tunisia last week. However, there are many obstacles on the way to its realisation, scheduled to take place in 2008.
On his visit to Algeria and Tunisia last week, Sarkozy began to test the water for closer co-operation between southern European and North African states. Talking to Tunisian newspaper Assbah, he said that his plans for a Mediterranean Union had received "a warm welcome by our Mediterranean partners within the EU and by countries of the Southern Mediterranean".
The French president had floated the idea of a Mediterranean Union during his election campaign, before coming to office in May this year. However, it remains unclear exactly what shape it will take and how the already existing Euro-Mediterranean relationship can be "beefed up".
According to Sarkozy, five North African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Libya) and five member states (France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Malta) are intended to be at the core of the initiative, which should be governed by a permanent council, similar to the Council of Europe. Its focus would be on organised crime and terrorism, sustainable development, illegal immigration and energy security.
The issue of energy supply will also feature high on the agenda of the upcoming French-Algerian meeting in November. France is offering a transfer of nuclear-energy technology for civil use, while Algeria, in return, would grant access to its gas supplies. In an interview with Algerian daily El Watan, Sarkozy said that he supported a rapprochement between the French-owned energy companies GDF, Suez and Total and the Algerian Sonatrach.
However, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the so-called Barcelona Process, in place since 1995, have already failed due to low ambitions from the EU's side and a lack of willingness from the EU's southern neighbours to co-operate with each other.
Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Fillon also promoted the idea of a Mediterranean Union on his visit to Italy on 13 July. He said that France, Italy and Spain intended to work on the initiative together. Fillon stated: "There is an urgent need for a large cooperation project for more security and more prosperity."
Sarkozy will first have to convince France's European partners, such as Italy and Spain, to join the initiative. The Commission in particular, which has been eager to underline the equal footing of the EU's partners to the East and South in its re-vamped Neighbourhood Strategy , is unlikely to endorse the plans.

Criticism was also raised by Turkey, which views this initiative as a means to stop the country from realising its EU-membership bid. The US may also fear losing its predominant influence in the region.
Euractive

Sarkozy in Tunisia, Algeria

Sarkozy promotes Mediterranean Union during visit to Algeria and Tunisia
French President Nicolas Sarkozy concluded a visit to Tunisia on Wednesday morning (July 11th), as part of his first tour of the Maghreb as French President. According to Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP), Sarkozy's Tuesday evening talks with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali focused on "fruitful co-operation between Tunisia and France, and... intensifying interconnection and consultation between the two countries to elevate the Tunisian-French partnership to the highest level."
...
During his visit to Algeria on Tuesday, Sarkozy said "friendship feeds more on projects and actions, than on treaties, speeches and words, and I believe that on this first point, our watches mark exactly the same hour. I did not experience the war with Algeria. I am not part of that generation on which history naturally weighs heavily. I came to Algeria as a friend, with the willingness to forge an understanding between two sovereign peoples, independent, who respect each other, and who share a history."

Magharebia

Sarkozy’s 'unclear proposal' on a Mediterranean Union

French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposal to create a ‘Union of the Mediterranean’ is not clear, especially on the nature and objectives of this new body, argue Michael Emerson and Nathalie Tocci from the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels.
In particular, the CEPS paper raises the following questions:

1. Would this trade union take over from the Barcelona process?
2. Would additional policy instruments be provided by the members of the Med-Union alone?
3. With the escalating hub of conflict in Israel-Palestine-Lebanon-Syria, how would the Mediterranean Union resolve the diplomatic impasse that has bedeviled the Barcelona process?

According to CEPS's paper, the 'take-over' option can be dismissed, even if Sarkozy has surprisingly launched this idea of a "Union of the Mediterranean" without mentioning the EU's Barcelona process. Another possibility, which would hardly merit the name of 'Union of the Mediterranean' and would only create extra confusion in the EU's processes, would be to create an expanded '5+5' West Mediterranean Forum, the paper states.
It proposes another possibility: to reshape the architecture of the Barcelona Process and that of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), by separating the southern and eastern branches of the ENP. Such a change would represent an important agenda to consider, the authors assert.
Under this scenario, the Barcelona Process and extra mechanisms of the ENP would be merged, and existing policies and procedures would be reconsidered. In addition, this Union of the Mediterranean would require a reconfiguration of the role of the most interested member-states, the paper states.
The CEPS therefore recommends this version of the 'Union of the Mediterranean' for Sarkozy's consideration, in case the idea was launched without been seriously prepared. This interpretation of the new President's proposal was suggested in the press, saying that it was "just an intuitive remark about wanting to do something 'better than Barcelona' in the Mediterranean".
Euractiv
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