The Barcelona process” “” “

On the mandate of the European Council held in Corfù in 1994, the Barcelona Conference of 1995 marked the birth of the Euromed partnership, the new strategy for the EU’s political, economic and commercial relations with the 12 Mediterranean countries: Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. Libya currently enjoys observer status. The partnership has three fundamental objectives: first, supporting political stability and the primacy of democracy based on respect for human rights; second, creating a free-trade zone; and third, favouring cooperation in the social, cultural and human resources fields. In comparison with previous policies in the Mediterranean, the partnership policy launched in Barcelona is innovative in three ways: first, it is global and tackles problems on a level of equality between its members; second, the regional cooperation begun in Barcelona also encourages integration between the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean themselves; and third, MEDA, the funding instrument at the partnership’s disposal, has made available for the first time substantial resources, supported by national plans concerted with the EU. The activities of the partnership are structured on two levels: the bilateral level, and the multilateral or regional level. At the bilateral level, relations are defined in the framework of association and cooperation agreements, different for each signatory country, whose minimum common denominator consists in political dialogue, respect for human rights and for democracy, establishment of a free-trade area compatible with the rules of the World Trade Organization, economic and cultural cooperation, cooperation relating to social affairs and immigration (including provisions for the repatriation of illegal immigrants), and shared rules on contracts, competition, state aid and monopolies. The role of regional cooperation, on the other hand, is based on two institutions: the Euro-Mediterranean Conferences (in which the Ministers responsible for the specific sectors involved participate) and the Euro-Mediterranean Committee for the Barcelona process (in which senior bureaucrats of the European and national administrations participate). The promotion of multilateral relations is guaranteed by the regional programmes that fund joint projects at three levels of partnership: political and security; economic and financial; social, cultural and human relations. At the side of the revolving Presidencies of the Union, the European Commission guarantees the coordination, preparation and control of the process in conformity with the terms of the Barcelona Declaration. The informal European Council, held in Ghent on 19 October, urged that priority be given to the dialogue between cultures, in particular in the framework of the Euromed process. To this end, a plan of action will be proposed during the forthcoming meeting of the 27 foreign ministers of the Barcelona process, scheduled to be held in Brussels on 5 and 6 November. The plan envisages, among other things, the creation of Euromed programmes for youth and student exchange, the creation of networks between schools at all levels, the exchange of teachers in the framework of inter-university cooperation programmes, the revision of school books to include all religions and the history of ideas, and the promotion of closer contacts between journalists. In the event of its being approved, the detailed drafting of this plan could begin at the beginning of next year to permit its adoption on the occasion of the meeting of foreign ministers scheduled to be held in Valencia on 18 and 19 April 2002. The establishment of a working group to evaluate the economic and financial repercussions of the international crisis on the Mediterranean will also be proposed to the foreign ministers of the 27 countries in Brussels.