speech by the Hon. Tonio Borg, Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, during
A seminar entitled: “Malta and the Euro
Mediterranean Partnership” organised by EuroMed
– st julian’s – 11 april 2008
MALTA’S ROLE IN THE
EURO-MEDITERRANEAN PARTNERSHIP
Twelve years into the Barcelona Process (28
November 1995) is a propitious occasion to take
stock of the successes and failures of the
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. The project was
ambitious. Its goal was to convert the
Mediterranean Sea into a zone of peace,
stability and prosperity. To that end, the EU
proposed the establishment of a vast Euro-MED
free trade area to be completed by 2010, a
substantial increase in financial assistance,
the conclusion of Association Agreements with
each of the neighboring countries in the
Mediterranean, and the establishment of a
political dialogue with all the countries around
the
Mediterranean.
Since 1995, the parties have established
numerous ministerial and official bodies to
oversee the process but crucially have failed to
secure wide visibility and popular support.
Unfortunately, the Process has not permeated
down to the grassroots of societies on either
side of the Mediterranean even if official
positions remain widely optimistic. Yet, the
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) hitherto
remains the most important regional process that
currently exists in the Mediterranean as it
brings together all of the European Union member
states and twelve Mediterranean countries
including the recently admitted new entrants,
Albania and Mauritania.
At the first Euro-Mediterranean Foreign Affairs
Ministerial conference that took place in
Barcelona in November 1995, Malta, together with
the original twenty-seven Euro-Mediterranean
countries, established three principal areas of
co-operation, i.e. the political and security
partnership, the economic and financial
partnership and the social and cultural
partnership. The Barcelona Declaration stresses
the strategic importance of the Mediterranean
being founded upon a basic understanding that
future Euro-Mediterranean relations should be
based on comprehensive cooperation and
solidarity, in keeping with the privileged
nature of the links underpinned by neighbourhood
and history.
It provides member states with ample space to
come up with several initiatives within the
three baskets. Such initiatives create a
platform of confidence building measures
enhancing cooperation between the EU and partner
countries. Although vision is what should give
us a shared direction, it is concrete action
that is paramount. One has to acknowledge that
despite the enduring conflict in the Middle
East, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has
overseen significant achievements since its
inception. Common institutions and networks like
the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) for dialogue
between cultures, the Euro-Mediterranean
Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA), the FEMISE
(network of economic research institutes) and
EuroMesco (network of political science
institutes) constitute significant assets of a
partnership of the now 39 partner countries. We
need to strengthen these initiatives and we need
similar initiatives if we really want to enhance
regional cooperation in the Mediterranean.
One important
example is the creation of a financial
institution, a Euro-Mediterranean Development
Bank which provides focus and visibility to this
process and which can provide the necessary
impetus to SMEs in the region. Such an important
structure will be vital for the enhancement of
economic expansion in the Mediterranean area.By 2015
the EMP will vastly enhance the trade volume
within the trans-Mediterranean area. One would
reasonably expect that by 2015, the
participating countries will be carrying out
circa 50‑60% of all their trade within the zone.
In the next decade, the EMP will also have a
positive impact on the amount of foreign direct
investment in the Mediterranean countries.
Assured market access and an improved overall
political and economic environment will
facilitate the task of attracting investors from
all over the world to our immediate
neighbourhood. Successful regional integration
and successful marketing of this reality
attracts international investment and provides
opportunities for all EMP partners within an
integrated area which otherwise would be
difficult to achieve individually.
There are
other areas where it is possible to achieve
concrete progress on a regional level. Take for
instance the environment. The issue of climate
change is of concern to the whole region and,
indeed, globally. In this regard we should
focus on these areas to create common
frameworks. Malta has already proposed an early
warning system when it comes to natural
disasters like tsunami. In the past century, the
Mediterranean experienced the consequences of
such disasters and, today, with further
industrial and technological development , we
tend to be more vulnerable if such disasters
come about. Climate change, together with energy
security and dialogue among cultures, are also
global issues which Malta is seeking to
systematically promote in regional fora: the EU-League
Arab States ministerial meeting, held in Malta
just two months ago, has brought about increased
awareness and sensitivity about these issues
which are of common concern to the regional
partners.
The Meeting has been a successful initiative in
the context of the EU’s common and foreign
security policy, with both the EU Commission and
the Presidency of the Arab League recognizing
interest and success that the Meeting generated
and agreeing to carry forward this
inter-regional dialogue as a means to address
common concerns and support the political will
to achieve common objectives.
The field of
innovation, and technology and research is
another area where we can make progress
together. EUROMEDITI is a Maltese led project
which aims in this direction.
EUROMEDITI has already opened up partnerships
between research, business and government
sectors supporting innovation policies in the
fields of water, environment, sustainable
energy, information and communication
technologies. This initiative aims to develop
and empower an outstanding technology and
innovation platform in the Mediterranean market.
This will appeal directly to industries
searching a location to execute applied research
and development, and a hub to access the
emerging Mediterranean market of around 400
million people.
Future Euro-Med programmes need to ensure that
people to people interaction is at the forefront
with the attention on young people in sharp
focus.. It is essential that a much larger
number of students from the Arab world are given
the opportunity to study at EU universities and
vice-versa. The Bologna process which Malta
embraces and promotes through inter-university
agreements must be made accessible to them. The
same goes for joint EU Arab research projects.
We need a package of programmes that seeks to
tap into the wealth of intelligence in the
region.
However, if we want such initiatives to fully
succeed we need to generate more dialogue
through the creation of appropriate structures.
Dialogue is of the essence and it is the conduit
to achieve cooperation. People-to-people
dialogue is crucial because it gives the
required visibility to the partnership. The
Euro-Mediterranean Partners should focus their
attention during the next five years to ensure
that the EMP has a discernible positive impact
on the Euro-Mediterranean citizens it is
supposed to be addressing. Raising awareness of
the EMP can be strengthened by directing more of
future Euro-Mediterranean programmes to the
civil societal level, especially educational
programmes as already identified by the European
Commission in its work programme for the next
five years.
What is perhaps rather lacking is this Civil
Society dimension and the creation of an
Economic and Social Council of the Mediterranean
as a necessary step towards a common house for
civil society in our region.
Such dialogue should take place within a
structured framework which is currently lacking
in Mediterranean fora. It is of utmost
importance that we create adequate structures
which are not overly elaborate, in order to
maintain momentum and continuity. We are pleased
to note that the 5+5 Dialogue has resumed its
periodic foreign ministerial meetings after a
lacuna of two years. It is important that we do
not create excessive bureaucratic mechanisms
impeding efficiency but rather aim at basic
complimentary structures which can help to
stimulate cooperation between partners.
The creation of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Mediterranean (PAM) is a positive example of
a regional initiative that will have adequate
structures from the outset. The instalment of
its Secretariat here in Malta will give this
Assembly the required tools to function
properly. Moreover, the creation of PAM can
illustrate how new initiatives in the region
function in harmony with other already
established frameworks. The PAM is not just
another parliamentary assembly – it is a
Parliamentary Assembly of all the littoral
Mediterranean countries dealing with issues of
regional interest.
New initiatives also serve to create impetus and
we think that the EU – Arab League Initiative
will give new impetus to regional cooperation.
While the EU has several levels of cooperation
with different regional frameworks around the
globe like ASEAN and MERCUSOR; it lacks similar
dialogue with the Arab League. Malta believes
that the EU’s relations with the Arab World is
of vital interest to both sides and is pleased
to note that the initiative will be followed up
in tangible terms by the European Commission in
the coming weeks.
The novel
French proposal of a Union for the Mediterranean
is another initiative that has to develop in
harmony with the other already established
frameworks. We should not jeopardize what we
have struggled to achieve in the last decade and
a half but create frameworks that can develop
harmoniously together, not at an expense of one
another. The European Council has given the
green light to the French proposal to boost ties
with the bloc’s southern neighbours. In
practice, the Union for the Mediterranean will
be a new political umbrella over the existing
Euro-Med partnership. The process of trade,
cultural and political cooperation has yielded
unsatisfactory results partly due to the
lingering Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also
because some Mediterranean partner states are
poorly equipped to absorb EU funds. The European
Council has approved, in principle, that what is
functioning in the Euro-Med dialogue should be
retained, while the use of Community procedures
should ascertain a degree of transparency in the
process that will see private capital working
with public funding. The setting up of a
mechanism for monitoring projects and a high
level dialogue every two years will allow for an
in depth review of the practical projects.
In order for
the partnership to be successful, cooperation in
the trade sector should be further promoted. We
believe that closer trade ties with our
Mediterranean partners would be to the economic
benefit of both the EU and the Mediterranean
region as a whole. We remain firm believers that
the Mediterranean region should be encouraged to
regain its historic role as a cradle for trading
nations and civilizations. Association
Agreements have made a deep difference in the
European Union’s trading relationship with the
southern Mediterranean countries. In a period of
ten years, these countries have doubled their
trade with the EU and their trade deficit with
the EU has been cut by half. However, more
needs to be done to reap the full potential of
this relationship. It is also clear that Malta’s
trade with all the Mediterranean partners can
clearly be developed further as there are still
many opportunities for increased trade and
investment flows within the region.
As we look
forward to the Paris Summit next July for the
re-launch and reinvigoration of the Barcelona
Process through the Union for the Mediterranean,
it is important to allow for variable geometry
to be applied, conscious of the different
situations of our partners. Turkey is already
linked to the EU through a customs union;
Morocco has been granted a special status in
bilateral relations with the EU; Algeria rejects
the idea of a free trade zone; Libya is still
largely on the margins although the new
framework agreement to be negotiated with the EU
proffers new prospects for its regional
integration. The principle of differentiation
inherent in the European Neighbourhood Policy
remains sine qua non.
The Union for
the Mediterranean should be an instrument in
sharing the EU’s Mediterranean policy whereby
non-EU countries would get a genuine co-decision
role. In essence, we need to secure more
political readability in the Union for the
Mediterranean that the Barcelona Process lacked;
we need to secure an inclusive pan-Mediterranean
approach while remaining sensitive to the
individual needs of the partner countries. We
should strive to globalize the Mediterranean
region to a more politically sensitive level if
we really want to generate a new impetus into
the Barcelona Process. This is a new challenge
we have to meet through open and frank dialogue.
Sensibly selected, down-to-earth, Mediterranean
projects developed in partnership with the
highest possible functionality and widest
visibility could be the practical and pragmatic
means to express this political will.
Through such
projects we will avoid a permanent divide
between the prosperous northern shores of the
Mediterranean basin and the less prosperous
southern shores. The emergence of such a
fault-line would have dire consequences for the
entire region and its peoples. In the new
interdependent post Cold War reality of today,
the invisibility of security in Europe, the
Mediterranean, the Americas, the Asia, dictates
that the international community works more
closely together to manage global sources of
instability. Malta, as it has done throughout
history, looks forward to continuing the
commitment to such a collective security
framework.
