WRITTEN QUESTION E-0422/01

by Juan Naranjo Escobar (PPE-DE) to the Council

(20 February 2001)

Subject: European interests in the Mediterranean

Despite the lack of multilateral cooperation in the western Mediterranean over the last nine years due, inter alia, to the violence in Algeria and the international embargo of Libya, two events of fundamental importance for the area have occurred during this period: the launch of the Middle East peace negotiations in 1991 and the establishment of the Barcelona Process in 1995.

The positive approach adopted by Libya, which has participated in the cooperation group of Interior Ministers of western Mediterranean countries since 1999 and is an observer to the Barcelona Process, Mauritania's withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on 31 December 2000 and the resumption, on 25 January in Lisbon, of the work of the 5+5 Group for Euromediterranean cooperation - composed of the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the five countries of the Arab Maghreb Union and the European Latin Rim countries (Spain, Italy, France and Portugal), plus Malta - are clear signs of a gradual rapprochement that must prevail in the Mediterranean.

What is the Council's political assessment of these recent events? What are the Council's priorities for promoting European interests in this part of the Mediterranean? What steps does it intend to take to further this process of rapprochement?

Reply

(10 July 2001)

In recent months the EU has worked actively, both at multilateral and regional level and bilaterally, to promote the stability and development of the Mediterranean region and the EU's interests in the area.

In its multilateral and regional components, the principles of action and coherence of the European Union's policy on the Mediterranean region have been defined and reaffirmed at two levels: by the 15 Member States, in the Common Strategy drawn up by the Council and adopted on 20 June 2000 by the European Council in Feira; and by the Fifteen joined by the candidate countries, at the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference in Marseille on 15 and 16 November 2000, which gave rise to the formal conclusions of the Presidency.

The Common Strategy on the Mediterranean Region defines and promotes the Union's objectives and interests in the region.

Its three main goals are as follows:

- to develop the Partnership established by the 1995 Barcelona Declaration and its subsequent acquis;

- to express the EU's determination to pursue a coherent overall policy towards the region;

- to manifest the EU's support for the consolidation of peace in the Middle East.

These objectives are closely reflected in the priorities put forward by the respective Presidencies for implementing the Strategy in the second half of 2000 and the first half of 2001.

The fourth Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference in Marseille bore witness to the desire of the participants to reinvigorate the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership despite the situation in the Middle East.

While making a qualified assessment of the implementation of the Partnership, all the participants emphasised the vital role of the institutional framework of the Barcelona Process and the need for the balanced progression of its three complementary chapters (political and security; economic and commercial; social, cultural and human). The Presidency announced the adoption by the Council on 26 November 2000 of the MEDA II Regulation: the new rules governing the Partnership's main financial instrument, to which a budget of 5 350 billion was allocated, are aimed at simplifying and accelerating implementation by speeding up procedures, and at making it more efficient by improving planning capacity.

The EU has also taken bilateral measures. With respect to the specific points raised by the Honourable Member, the Association Agreement with Egypt was initialled on 26 January and the negotiations to conclude Association Agreements with Algeria, Lebanon and Syria are being pursued actively with a view to completing negotiations this year. Although Mauritania, which was also mentioned by the Honourable Member, is an ACP country, it is regularly informed by the Presidency of the Council of initiatives taken and progress made in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. With respect to the EU's policy towards Libya, the Council refers the Honourable Member to point 6 of the Common Strategy: It covers all the EU's relations with all its partners in the Barcelona process, and with Libya. While Libya has to date given no undertaking that it will adhere fully to the acquis of the Barcelona Process, it has participated in the past two ministerial conferences (Stuttgart and Marseille) as the Presidency's special guest.

The Council is also aware of the constructive role played in this area by the European Parliament, particularly during the parliamentary forum it organised in February 2001.

Libya was also invited to the Ministerial Conference on the Western Mediterranean Cooperation Process, known as the 5+5 Process, in Lisbon on 25/26 January, to which the Honourable Member also refers. This non-Community forum has a useful role to play in complementing the Council's coherent overall policy towards the Mediterranean region.