MEMORANDUM BY THE FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH
OFFICE
THE FOURTH EURO-MEDITERRANEAN FOREIGN MINISTERIAL
CONFERENCE, MARSEILLES, 15-16 NOVEMBER 2000
1. This memorandum responds to the Committee's
request for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's view of the
recent Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial in Marseilles on 15-16 November.
It reports discussion at the Ministerial and the UK's view of
the meeting. Presidency conclusions are attached.
2. The Foreign Secretary represented the
UK at the fourth Ministerial meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean
Partnership (or "Barcelona Process") in Marseilles.
The process, inaugurated in 1995, brings together the EU with
twelve partners: Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Israel, and the Mediterranean
Arab States (less Libya) plus Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
However, for this meeting, Syria and Lebanon stayed away in protest
at Israeli action in the Middle East. The Libyan Foreign Minister
attended as a "special guest of the Presidency". Yemen,
Mauritania and the Arab Maghreb Union were present as observers.
3. The Ministerial focussed on the three
chapters of the Barcelona process: political, economic, and social/cultural.
It based its work on the Commission's September 2000 Communication
COM(2000) 497, Reinvigorating the Barcelona Process.
POLITICAL ISSUES
4. Events in the Middle East dominated the
political discussion. The Presidency added a session on this at
short notice straight after the formal opening ceremony, with
discussion continuing over dinner with only Ministers present.
The Palestinian Authority, Israel, Jordan and Egypt made strong
but measured statements expressing deep concern about the current
situation and calling for an end to the violence and a resumption
of formal negotiations. Both the Palestinians and the Israelis
expressed appreciation for the help and support the EU has given
to the peace process.
5. Looking to the future, Ministers agreed
on the need to keep building political dialogue and co-operation
among the 27 partners. The main political issue was to have been
the adoption of a "Charter for Peace and Stability",
providing for political and security co-operation between the
27 partners. Although the current political situation meant this
was not possible, we hope that work towards this goal will resume
when the political situation permits.
ECONOMIC ISSUES
6. Discussion of the economic chapter focused
on the importance of providing new impetus towards the Process's
key goal in this area: a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area by
2010. Ministers generally agreed that partners needed to do more
to liberalise their economies and make them more attractive to
foreign investment, including agreeing free trade agreements amongst
themselves as well as with the EU. In this respect, the announcement
that Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia were planning to create
a sub-regional free trade area was particularly welcomed. For
its part, the EU needed to ratify Association Agreements more
quickly. The UK pressed particularly for more generous agricultural
access to EU markets.
7. The EU also confirmed that the indicative
figure for the new MEDA regulation over the period 2000-06 would
be ?5.35 billion, and that the new regulation would allow for
swifter, more effective disbursement of funds. The EU also expressed
its aspiration that MEDA funds would be more closely linked to
the Association Agreements with EuroMed partners.
SOCIAL/CULTURAL
ISSUES
8. Discussion of the social, human and cultural
chapter revealed broad agreement that co-operation had to be made
more effective. This should include involving civil society and
developing, as the Commission has suggested, two new regional
programmes in 2001: on social and JHA issues. The JHA programme
would tackle organised crime, judicial administration and migration,
including the social inclusion of lawful migrants to the EU. Specific
proposals for reinvigorating the chapter (in addition to those
in the conclusions) included a meeting of health ministers next
year (Italy), a summit on the information society in 2003 (Tunisia)
and a "Year of the Mediterranean" in 2002 (Morocco).
CONCLUSIONS
9. The formal conclusions (which are issued
on the responsibility of the Presidency) were circulated towards
the end of the meeting. The language on the Middle East Peace
Process had been discussed informally earlier in the day.
UK VIEWS
10. The meeting was a successful, and useful,
stocktake of the Barcelona Process. The fact that Ministers were
able to discuss all aspects of Barcelona, at a tense period in
the Middle East, is a tribute to the importance of the Process
and to the French Presidency's handling of the Ministerial. Overall,
Ministers generally took the view that, while the Process had
some useful achievements to its credit, renewed impetus was needed
if it was to stay on track for its ambitious goals.
11. A French language copy of the conclusions
is attached. An English version will be forwarded to the Committee
as soon as it is available.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
17 November 2000
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