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

Europe Looks to Africa for Solar Power

The European project known as Desertec is nothing if not ambitious. It aims to harvest the sun’s energy — using a method known as concentrating solar power, or C.S.P. — from the vast North African desert and deliver it as electricity, via high-voltage transmission lines, to markets in Europe. Eventually, its backers say, it could satisfy as much as 15 percent of the European Union’s power needs.

The idea, which has been bouncing around for years, arises out of an alphabet soup of organizations, formal multinational partnerships and regional acronyms like TREC, for Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation; Eumena, or European Union, the Mediterranean and North Africa; the Union of the Mediterranean; and the Club of Rome.

As James Kanter reported in our Green Inc. blog, the project took a step forward last week when a consortium of German businesses announced plans to pursue financing and otherwise hammer out details for Desertec, which is expected to cost about €400 billion, or $555 billion.

Desertec would be the largest centralized solar power production project on earth. That such an ambitious, clean-energy megaproject should be taking a step forward, however incremental, might suggest that deep-pocketed investors have truly seen the writing on the wall with regard to legislated carbon abatement and the slow phase-out of fossil fuels.

But not everyone is convinced. Some scratched their heads at the idea of spending billions of dollars to harvest sunlight and transmit electricity thousands of kilometers, when it can be produced increasingly efficiently in European backyards. “It must once again be pointed out that the most successful method of harvesting solar power is with rooftop panels,” wrote the German daily Die Tageszeitung. “In just three to five years, power from the roof will be cheaper than electricity from the wall plug. The economic bar for desert power is, in other words, high. Solar power produced in a decentralized manner will likely always be the cheaper variety.”

The German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, meanwhile, quoted Frank Asbeck, the chief executive of SolarWorld, the largest German solar company, as saying, “Building solar power plants in politically unstable countries opens you to the same kind of dependency as the situation with oil.”

NYT

Will this new union be anything more than a giant photo opportunity?

Some signs are promising. Far from the cameras, there was real diplomacy, promising real results. Even if the timing and details are vague, Assad and his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Suleiman, agreed to open diplomatic offices in the two countries for the first time. And even if Assad refused to shake Olmert's hand and left the room when the Israeli spoke Sunday, the two men communicated indirectly through Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who became a messenger in the ornate hallways of the Hôtel de Crillon.

In an attempt to keep the momentum going, the next meeting - of the 43 foreign ministers - is already scheduled for November. "This was not a one-off," said Eric Chevallier, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry. "This was an important moment and it will be followed by many others. We are determined to keep it going."

Not everyone is so optimistic. Squabbling over whether or not to call Israel a "nation-state" almost deadlocked the union's founding declaration Sunday. In the end, diplomats skirted the issue by referring to two conferences last November, one in Annapolis, Maryland, and one in Lisbon, one of which did and one did not make a reference to the term nation-state. Since no one could agree, sensitive decisions on where the union secretariat will be based and which country will provide the first secretary were postponed until the November meeting.

And even some of the successes, said Dominique Moïsi of the French Institute of International Relations, have more to do with short-term interests than long-term vision. Olmert's political future is in doubt because of corruption allegations at home, reducing his credibility to deliver on long-term promises. Assad, who has been itching to get out of political isolation, wants to return to the center of the Middle East peace process. And Sarkozy, deeply unpopular in France, is in need of a triumph. "The meeting was triumphant, but I am very skeptical about the long-term ramifications," Moïsi said.

IHT

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

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.

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

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).

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

Spain now proposes Mediterranean Union

Spain's foreign minister has proposed a Mediterranean Union, an idea first suggested by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, with fully fledged institutions along the lines of the European Union.

"The moment has arrived ... to build a real geopolitical space through the establishment of a Mediterranean Union," Miguel Angel Moratinos wrote in an article in yesterday's El Pais, a prominent Spanish daily.

A union comprising EU states and Mediterranean countries should have a council of heads of state and government that would set strategic policy guidelines, ministerial councils, a Permanent Commission to act as a secretariat, a reinforced parliamentary assembly and even its own bank, he said. "The organization would help the region tackle challenges ranging from environmental issues to immigration."

Moratinos' comments follow a meeting of foreign ministers from Mediterranean EU countries in Slovenia this month, which discussed expanding the existing Barcelona Process of regular meetings between EU member states and Mediterranean states.

The Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean partnership, created in 1995 at the height of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, has been dogged by the failure to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Other obstacles to the declared objectives of promoting political, economic and cultural cooperation, as well as creating a Mediterranean free trade area by 2010, have been agricultural protectionism in southern Europe and the opaque, authoritarian nature of many south Mediterranean governments. Spain tried to stage a first Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona in 2005, but most Arab leaders stayed away.

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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