Issues
The Union for the Mediteranean: a new French offensive
The Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) was launched on July 13, 2008 in Paris. The concept of a partnership between European and Mediterranean countries is not a new one. In 1995, the European countries had launched the ‘Barcelona Process’. The UPM restores the same spirit as Barcelona, but with a few changes and modifications.
Realising the stalemate that Barcelona had reached, from 2005 onwards, France has been trying to revive a partnership with Mediterranean countries. It is in 2007, during his presidential campaign, that Nicolas Sarkozy mentioned for the first time his project of Union of the Mediterranean (UM). In May 2007, on the day of his election as president, Sarkozy announced his desire to launch that union. In December 2007, he had convinced Spain and Italy of the incredible potential of his project and together with them, called all European and Mediterranean countries to meet in July 2008 and formalise their union.
However, some within the EU showed reluctance towards Sarkozy’s project. Many saw it as a way to shake European institutions and to strengthen France’s power by placing it at the heart of the action. They saw the UM as a threat and an impediment to the EU and its projects. Rapidly, with pressure from Angela Merkel who refused to see the UM only dealt with by France, several changes were brought to Sarkozy’s original draft that became a European project. Its name then changed to the Union for the Mediterranean.
While reaffirming the main objectives of Barcelona, promoting peace and stability in the Mediterranean region through political dialogue, encouraging economical growth through the creation of economic and financial partnerships and a free trade area, and finally, privileging the creation of cultural ties, mutual understanding and social dialogue, the UPM also supports new projects and ideas for the euro-med zone.
The core purpose of those projects is not only to work on regional problems, but also to create strong relationships amongst the countries of the Mediterranean coast, and between the north and the south, through joint efforts and cooperation. Unemployment, public health, water access, the environment, are some of the most pressing issues of the region that will be addressed by the UPM. The UPM seeks to be a platform for debate and discussion in order to solve those issues and find common solutions to them.
By forming this new union, Sarkozy hopes to generate the same opportunities for the Mediterranean countries, and more specifically for the middle eastern countries, than those that re-united Europe about 50 years ago and helped shape a new era of peace on the old continent. It is through economical cooperation, starting with the European Coal and Steal Community, that the French-German traditionally conflictive relationship evolved into a partnership and that those two countries as well as the rest of Europe, managed to create a lasting stable and friendly relationship. Would the same thing be possible in the Middle East through the UPM?
A major difference remains between those two situations: the UPM connects north and south in the same projects. Is it a strength or a weakness? Many Mediterranean countries have suffered in the past from the colonisation era. Is it really necessary to reiterate the same kind of dialectic? Is the UPM really a partnership or rather a mean for Europeans to keep an influence in the Mediterranean countries? To these questions, there are several answers and differing opinions. It seems however that the benefits of such a partnership could be positive for each of its members. The project seems to address the major problems of the Mediterranean region and bring viable solutions to them.
It is also important to note that Nicolas Sarkozy’s project raises many controversies that are not only coming from the EU countries. The Mediterranean countries are also reluctant to get involved in the UPM; some, like Libya, even refused to participate in the project. Kadhafi sees in the UPM a serious risk to weaken the unity and authority of the Arab League and the African Union. He qualified Sarkozy’s project of ‘humiliating’ for the Mediterranean countries and plainly refused to contribute to it.
To those issues, France’s answer is that the UPM is a ‘union of equals’. The Union for the Mediterranean is a project designed to further develop the south of the Mediterranean and create a forum within which those countries will be able to work on projects that will be constructive to them in partnership with Europe. It is a partnership of equals between the European Union and the participating Mediterranean countries. To ensure of this equality between north and south, the UPM brings some changes to the Barcelona Process that lacked this quality. A co-presidency will be put in place with, at the head of the union, a personality from both the north and south bank of the UPM. The secretariat of the UPM will be constituted of an equal number of members from the north and from the south.
However, the UPM also has to face other problems: two of the most important controversies are the issues of Turkey and the Arab-Israeli conflict. At the dawn of this project, many questions and doubts have already been raised about those two specific matters.
Questions are raised about the true intentions of the UPM relating to Turkey. Will the EU, and especially France who is seriously opposed to Turkey’s integration in the EU, use the UPM in order to stop Turkey’s ambitions to become European? Is the UPM an option offered to Turkey to later justify a refusal to integrate them in the EU? Is Sarkozy trying, through the UPM to give Turkey an alternative to work with the EU without being part of it?
The participation of Israel in the UPM is also a sensitive and potentially problematic topic for many. One of the reasons why the Barcelona Process failed was particularly the Arab-Israeli conflict and the inability of both parties to collaborate in the framework of Barcelona. Will they be able to work together this time? Will the UPM manage to foster cooperation, collaboration, and stable relations between them? According to France, the role of the UPM is not to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict, but rather to promote the establishment of concrete projects in the region that would implicate each actor and lead to the creation of new ties between Israel and the Arab countries.
Many questions, doubts and challenges are ahead for the future leaders of the UPM. On July 13th, 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy hosted the first official meeting of the UPM in Paris. If all participants share the same enthusiasm as the French president, the UPM could be an important trigger for peace and development in the euro-Mediterranean region.
Dalia Bahous
Research Assistant
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- Origin CERMAM
- http://www.cermam.org/en/logs/dossier/the_union_for_the_mediteranean/
- Publié le 16 July 2008