The EU as a regional actor in the Mediterranean: from the EMP to the ENP and the UfM.

Thèmes abordés

European policy, mediterranean policy, ENP, UFM, EMP, EU, european union

Résumé du document

The Euro-Mediterranean partnership (or the Barcelona Process) is an instrument of political dialogue created at the conference of foreign ministers in Barcelona on 27-28 November 1995. It includes the 25 member states of the European Union and 10 Southern and the Eastern Mediterranean states: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, Libya and Mauritania attending conferences as an observer.

The Barcelona Declaration aims to turn the Mediterranean into a common area of peace, stability and prosperity through:
 Strengthening political dialogue and security;
 An economic and financial partnership;
 And a social, cultural and human.

These are the 3 components of the Barcelona Process.
In November 2005, the Barcelona Conference II, aimed to reinvigorate the partnership. Hence the question: more than ten years after its launch, where are we the Euro-Mediterranean partnership now?

My problematic? To discuss on the current and future partnership forged by a Europe moving and whose expansion has proved a turning point.

While relations between EU and PM had gradually increased (I), we must ask whether the construction of new external relations of the EU, namely the launch of a European Neighborhood Policy and the Union for the Med, can deepen the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, and if so for what future? (II and III).

Extraits

[...] According to the report drawn up in April 2005 by the European Commission for the tenth anniversary of the partnership3, a work program to meet the challenges of the next five years, migration and social integration of migrants is a central issue of the Euromed partnership million citizens from the Mediterranean partner countries (mainly Morocco, Algeria and Turkey) are now legally resident in the EU. The demographic situation in the EU is such that new migrants have to come to further strengthen the workforce. [...]

[...] The objective of Euro‐ Mediterranean partnership should therefore facilitate the political feasibility of reforms using of outside anchor. The Union for the Mediterranean has been a difficult and controversial gestation. Currently, UfM is still in its infancy so it is still too early to judge the effectiveness and relevance of its work which is already complex to work. [...]

[...] One might nevertheless fear that the situation deteriorates to the South as for Mexico: after the accession to NAFTA, it has tripled its imports of food and moves from a situation of self‐sufficiency to a situation in which 40% of foodstuffs are imported and lead to the bankruptcy of eight million Mexican farmers. Politically, many doubts remain about the real motives of this initiative. First, is it a French, European or Mediterranean draft? Since the end of the Cold War, France is experiencing a decline in terms of political influence in Africa. The Mediterranean is the area in which France expects to unfold by highlighting its economic benefits, membership in this space and its willingness to promote it. [...]

[...] The EU is also the largest foreign direct investor and the largest donor in the region with nearly 3 billion euros per year in loans and grants. This section is organized by the association agreements which represent a breakthrough in trade integration between the EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) with a dual objective of free trade by 2010 and increase financial aid In October 2005, over 700 Sub‐Saharan migrants tried to enter Spanish territory from the Moroccan border. More than ten people were shot trying to cross the border between Morocco and the Spanish territories of Ceuta and Melilla. [...]

[...] On July 13 in Paris, there will be a summit of European and Mediterranean countries9. Thus, the organization of the UfM is based on a co‐presidency between an officer of the North coast designated as representation mechanisms in force within the European Union and an officer of the south coast designated by consensus in the states concerned. The Egyptian president and the French president are the first two co‐chairs, but this decision is debatable. The uncertain future of the UFM The UfM is an ambitious project: all projects are expected to create no less than forty million jobs in 2010. [...]