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French President Sarkozy’s original ambitious plan, nicknamed “Club Med,” was conceived a year ago during his presidential campaign and involvied only the EU's Mediterranean countries and its neighbours but not the EU as a whole.
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BRUSSELS (EJP)---European Union EU leaders gave Friday the green light to a watered down plan to create a "Union for the Mediterranean," a project initiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and aimed at upgrading the EU's relations with its neighbours from North Africa and the Middle East.
The new version of the plan, adopted at a regular EU spring summit meeting in Brussels, will include the 27 EU member states and some 12 Mediterranean nations, including Israel.
The new organization will be called "Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean,” according to a EU presidency statement.
The statement said that the EU leaders asked the European Commission to present it the necessary proposals for defining the modalities of the new union with a view to a launch summit to take place in Paris on July 13.
Sarkozy’s original ambitious plan, nicknamed “Club Med,” was conceived a year ago during his presidential campaign as an exclusive club involving only the EU's Mediterranean countries and its neighbours but not the EU as a whole.
The new plan is to replace the so-called “Barcelona process” launched 13 years ago in order to strengthen the EU’s relations with its southern neighbors but which many critics say has so far failed to deliver, mainly because of the lack of Israeli-Palestinian peace but also because of the Mediterranean governments' poor record in using the EU funds on offer.
The downsizing of the original plan came after EU countries with no borders on the Mediterranean, in particular Germany, expressed skepticism at the proposal, with member states from Eastern Europe particularly concerned that it would divert precious EU funds away from their region.
The president of the European Parliament, German Hans-Gert Poettering said that the Mediterranean Union “should work to strengthen the EU, not compete with it.”
In the end, Sarkozy was forced to back down and agree to allow all 27 EU member states to participate in this initiative.
Another element of the compromise relates to the Union's management structure, which will consist of two directors coordinating cooperation between the EU and the partner countries. One director is to come from the EU member states and the other from a non-European Mediterranean country.
Both will be appointed for two years, supported by a 20-strong secretariat, to be located in a yet-to-be-determined southern EU city. Barcelona and Marseille have been mentioned as potential candidates, claimed Sarkozy, who denied having endorsed the French city.
President Sarkozy lauded the agreement, saying that "Europe does not turn its back towards the Mediterranean Union anymore".
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country currently holds the EU Presidency, told journalists at a press conference concluding the EU summit meeting: "It is now a question of doing what is needed so that this project can see the light of day".
Asked about the future of the Barcelona Process, he said: "It is not a question of burying it, to start from scratch. It's just about bringing it up to date." "Times have changed, we have to adapt," he added.
