Ist der EuroMed-Prozess dabei totzulaufen? [en] 

On 27-28 November, the leaders of the EU-25 countries were scheduled to meet with their counterparts from the Mediterranean region for a summit meeting in Barcelona to mark the 10th anniversary of the so-called Euro-Med co-operation framework. The summit's focus was the fight against terrorism and issues related to immigration and promoting economic and democratic reforms.

The Euro-Mediterranean partnership brings together the EU-25 states as well as Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.

The impact of the Barcelona summit was significantly weakened by the absence of most of the Arab leaders invited. Only the Palestinian Authority and Turkey sent their heads of state. While most EU heads of state were in attendance, several Middle East group members were represented by ministerial-level delegates only.

The EU has spent some 20 billion euros on the Mediterranean region since 1995. The annual EU purse for grants is one billion euros, and a further 2 billion euros a year are made available in loans. However, EU officials acknowledge that the results to date have been mostly disappointing.

The two-day summit in Barcelona has been described in the press as a "fractious" and "lacklustre" event where the most contentious issues have been "fudged". The summit's outcome reflected deep disagreement among the participants about the definition of terrorism and the distinction between a terrorist and a freedom fighter. 

Several Arab representatives insisted that the fight against terrorism should not be allowed to have a bearing on the "right of peoples under foreign occupation or resistance". The EU, on the other hand, argued that self-determination could not be considered a justification for terrorism. 

As a result, the British EU Presidency had to relinquish its original plans for a "common vision" statement which would have linked European aid more directly to democratic, economic and political reforms in the Mediterranean region. However, the EU's demands for reforms in exchange for increased funding were also perceived negatively by some Arab participants. 

The participants hammered out a last-minute agreement on a code of conduct to fight terrorism, in which they condemned terrorism "without qualification", and they also adopted a five-year work programme for the Euro-Mediterranean framework which seeks to extend co-operation into the sensitive areas of security and combatting illegal migration. According to the work programme, the participants share the Euro-Mediterranean framework's original aim of creating a free trade area in the region by 2010.

The 35 countries also pledged "their renewed commitment to the objective of achieving a common area of peace, stability and prosperity in the Mediterranean region through ongoing dialogue, exchange and cooperation". 

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the anti-terrorism code of conduct as a "very important moment" and a "strong statement", and he said that the arguments should not overshadow the summit's accomplishments. 

Blair added that "definitional issues [of terms such as terrorism] will run their course".

The EU's Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said that the code of conduct adopted by the summit could trigger a breakthrough in UN efforts to agree on a definition of terrorism. "It will not automatically be translated into the UN convention, but I am convinced it will pave the way", Frattini said.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said that "yesterday people thought [the summit] would be a failure. Today they can see that it's a great success that we unanimously adopted two important documents, on terrorism and a five-year plan". Solana recalled that "there has never been a joint declaration at Euro-Med meetings".

Josep Borrell, the president of the European Parliament, acknowledged the lack of "any significant progress on the road to peace and shared prosperity" at the summit. According to Borrell, "economic and political objectives are indivisible".

According to minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem of Algeria, the Mediterranean countries found it "humiliating that the European demand reforms from us in exchange for a few euros".

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that terming the summit a “fiasco” is a bit of an exaggeration as he believes there were some positive developments this year.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said that the summit's conclusion was an achievement "without precedent".

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis of Greece hailed the summit's conclusions as being "of special significance" for Athens.

In an editorial, the Arab News said that "By seeking to push through a politically loaded deal, the joint hosts, Spain and Britain, missed the opportunity to agree on the far more important statement that what makes modern terrorists such reprehensible criminals is that they target innocent civilians. The problem is that European governments in particular seem incapable of talking about the inhumanity of the latest terrorist depravity, without then relating the crime to their own political agenda".

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told Reuters that the summit's outcome was "very positive". The fact that most Arab leaders stayed at home was due to domestic concerns or ill health and "was not meant to be directed against Spain or against Europe," he said.