The European Commission last week approved a Communication containing 15 recommendations to relaunch the Euro-Mediterranean process. The document presents a series of proposals relating to all the chapters of the Barcelona Process and is aimed especially at improving its overall functioning. The Communication, by which the EU executive intends to furnish a basis for discussion at the next summit of the 27 foreign ministers scheduled to be held in Valencia from 22 to 23 April 2002, proposes the setting up a Euro-Mediterranean Foundation “for the dialogue of cultures and civilizations”, endowed with an initial budget co-financed by the EU and individual member states for a sum equivalent to 16 million euros. The Commission, though emphasizing the important progress made inter alia in the sector of association agreements and in the improvement of the Meda programme, lists a series of problems that need to be addressed: they include the need to avoid disparities in development that risk turning the Euro-Med region into “a new line of political, social and economic fracture”, and the need to stifle at birth the “risk of a clash with Islam”.
