Debate over Mediterranean Union heats up in Europe

13/08/2007

Is French President Nicholas Sarkozy's proposal simply aimed at derailing Turkey's EU bid, or does it hold out the promise of greater EU engagement with the Mediterranean rim?

By Ayhan Simsek for Southeast European Times -- 13/08/07

An economic community of countries on the Mediterranean rim -- along the lines of the early EU -- is the basis for the plan. [Getty Images]

French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who has been vocal in his opposition to EU membership for Turkey, has suggested forming a Mediterranean Union as an alternative. It would gather the European, Middle Eastern, and North African countries of the Mediterranean rim into an economic community along the lines of the early EU. The proposal has become the subject of hot debate across Europe and beyond.

The idea of a Mediterranean Union is not new; it has circulated among European countries for more than a decade. Turkey has never been a central theme in the discussions, however -- the focus was on addressing the challenges of immigration flow into Europe and increased Islamic extremism among the African and Arab countries in the region. Critics say Sarkozy is simply looking for a convenient pretext to eliminate the EU bids of Turkey and other candidate countries in the Balkans.

Nevertheless, he has won support. A ringing endorsement came from Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak. "Personally, I think that it's an excellent proposition, which needs to be studied," Mubarak told journalists following a meeting with Sarkozy in Paris. "We are … still reflecting on this initiative. We hope that it will succeed; and we think that it is also in the interests of North African countries and of Europe," he said.

Another key EU member, Spain, made a surprise move this month by floating its own proposal for a Mediterranean Union. "The moment has arrived ... to build a real geopolitical space through the establishment of a Mediterranean Union," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos wrote in El Pais

Comprising EU states and Mediterranean countries, the Union would 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, Moratinos said.

Such an organisation could take a key role in the region to tackle challenges ranging from environmental issues to immigration, he said/

Some interpreted Spain's proposal as evidence that Madrid is backpedaling from is long-standing support for Turkey's EU bid. However, diplomats clarified the country's position by underlining that Spain does not see the Mediterranean Union as an alternative to EU membership. Spain, they explained, has traditionally supported strengthening the Mediterranean dimension of the EU, and the Moratinos' suggestion was in line with that view.

Some see French President Nicholas Sarkozy proposal as an attempt to steer Turkey away from membership in the EU. [Getty Images]

While France and Spain may agree on the general idea of a regional union, they appear to differ on the details. Spain sees it as an extension of the Barcelona Process -- the EU's policy towards the Mediterranean states.

The Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean partnership, created in 1995 at the height of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, was dogged by the failure to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Objectives included promoting political, economic and cultural co-operation, supporting political and economic reforms in the region, and creating a Mediterranean free trade area by 2010. However, authoritarian governments in the south Mediterranean have shown little interest so far in political and economic reforms -- they have, in fact, avoided close co-operation.

Spain says its plan aims to overcome the shortcomings of the Barcelona Process and help the EU become more engaged in the region. By contrast, some see Sarkozy's proposal as an attempt by France to increase its own influence in Mediterranean by limiting the Union to the coastal states, therefore excluding its EU rivals from the project.

"I think Sarkozy's ideas are extremely problematic … if you take them seriously," Centre for European Policy Studies Associate Senior Research Fellow Michelle Emerson says. While the EU might consider dividing its Neighbourhood Policy between the eastern and southern branches, going after a separate Mediterranean Union structure would cause major problems, she argues.

"Sarkozy has been suggesting some other mechanisms that would be for the Mediterranean littoral states, coastal states only … this would cause a really big mess within the EU. This would mean undercutting and destroying basically the Neighborhood Policy and the Barcelona Process," Emerson says. "[It] would also undermine so many practical instruments of the EU's competencies, for example in trade policy, aid policy, justice and home affairs … on all these things across the Mediterranean, there are established mechanisms within the competences of the EU."

On the other hand, French historian and writer Alexandre Adler hails the Mediterranean Union as a potential high point of French diplomacy. Writing in Le Figaro, he predicts it will transform the EU's Barcelona Process, promote co-operation among Maghreb countries, and end long rivalries.

"The moment has arrived ... to build a real geopolitical space through the establishment of a Mediterranean Union," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said. [Getty Images]

"The new mechanism implicitly suggests that the various geographical sectors of the Muslim world are part of broader areas, which they share with non-Muslims," he said, adding that the Union could even foster a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ankara, meanwhile, has not ruled out participation, but it stressed that any Mediterranean Union would not be an acceptable alternative to its 44-year quest to become an EU member. Turkish officials have asked for a more concrete proposal from Sarkozy.

Turkey was officially recognised as a candidate for EU membership in 1999. The country's EU accession negotiations, which began two years ago, are expected to take at least a decade to complete.

France's objections to Turkish membership have contributed – along with a number of other issues, such as the Cyprus dispute – to a slowdown in the process. If nothing else, talk of a Mediterranean Union has at least refocused attention on Turkey's evolving relationship with the bloc it hopes to join. Whether it proves a fruitful avenue for discussion or a source of rancor remains to be seen.