Mediterranean Programme - [04/03/2008]

The Mediterranean arrives in Warsaw

The French proposal to create a Union for the Mediterranean is being modified so that it will not only be compatible with the EU's Euro-Mediterranean policy, but that it will even help to strengthen it. Nevertheless, France's unilateralism in this area highlights a process that could be called the "renationalisation of Mediterranean policy". Is France's initiative an isolated case, or can the same tendencies be observed in other EU Member States? This was one of the central questions in the EuroMeSCo seminar titled "Competition and complementarity: national and EU policies on the southern Mediterranean”, held in Warsaw on 1 April and hosted by the Instytut Spray Publicznych. Other issues under discussion included the policies toward the Mediterranean of new EU Member States such as Poland and the Baltic states, as well as the reactions to Sarkozy's proposal of countries in the southern and eastern Mediterranean regions.

In his address at the seminar, Eduard Soler, Coordinator of the CIDOB Foundation's Mediterranean Programme, explained the way in which Spain's Mediterranean policy had evolved. Soler stressed that even though the Mediterranean is one of the main priorities of Spain's foreign policy, it is subordinate to European policy. Spain has always believed that would be able to defend its interests in the Mediterranean better by leading European initiatives instead of by acting unilaterally. Soler gave a few examples of Spain's Mediterranean activism: the launching of the Barcelona Process, the Valencia Conference in 2002 and the Euro-Mediterranean Summit in 2005. Nevertheless, Soler added that since the Summit, Spain has, generally speaking, acted in a defensive, reactive manner.

On this subject, Soler mentioned that it was only recently that we have seen greater involvement by Spain in the design and application of the European Neighbourhood Policy, for example, in its promoting an Advanced Statute for Morocco. Spain's reaction toward the French proposal of the Union for the Mediterranean followed the same guideline. Thus, in spite of Spain's efforts to re-channel the initial proposal toward a European route and to make it compatible with the Barcelona Process, it was Germany's negative reaction that ended up blocking Sarkozy's initial plans.

Meanwhile, Stefania Panebianco, from the University of Catania, also described Italy's policy as reactive; Beata Wojna, from the PISM of Warsaw, highlighted the absence of a Polish Mediterranean policy and the fear that existed in that country that a strengthened EU Mediterranean policy might divert funds and efforts that Poland would prefer to see invested in Eastern Europe. Tiago Maques, from Tallinn University, described a Mediterranean policy in the Baltic States that was still in the process of creation and which particularly followed the guidelines set by Finland and Sweden. Lena Korlanska-Bobinska, Director of the IPA in Warsaw, described Poland's policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict and went on to speak about the limits of greater involvement in this issue.

As for the Mediterranean countries, Harun Arikan, from Adana University, stressed the fear that had become generated in Turkey at the possibility that Sarkozy's proposal could represent an alternative to the country's accession to the EU. Ahmed Driss, from the University of Tunis, and Abdessamad Belhaj, from HIIA in Budapest, presented the reaction of the countries of the Maghreb region to the French proposal. They declared that in the Maghreb, the initiative had been interpreted as an attempt by France to gain a greater role in the face of the political and economic advancement of other powers; the Maghreb countries had also noted the fact that as the proposal has been evolving, some of the initial expectations (linked with achieving higher levels of integration and flexibility) have disappeared.

The seminar served to bring reflections on Euro-Mediterranean issues to Warsaw in spite of the fact that these are still of minor importance in Poland's external priorities. Even so, with the process of European integration, it is becoming increasingly evident that Spain's borders now stretch as far as Russia and the Ukraine, and that Poland’s borders being moved towards the Mediterranean coast. From this we can deduce that the only way we can achieve results that are satisfactory for all is by introducing an integrated European foreign policy that does not stress the eastern dimension at the expense of the southern one (and vice-versa), but which is developed equally in both areas.

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