"The launch of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) on 13 July in Paris was an undeniable diplomatic success," said del Picchia, who recently authored a progress report on the UfM for the French Senate.
In the report, del Picchia stressed that the purpose of the project was to strengthen bilateral relations between the southern and northern states on each side of the Mediterranean (EurActiv 14/07/08).
However, the senator stressed that the MedUnion - or 'Club Med' as it was quickly dubbed - lacks proper institutions to be fully operational. "The 43 countries […] first initiated projects, ideas and objectives, and then, as a second step, thought about the institutions," he said.
The new Union was officially inaugurated at a summit in Paris last July (EurActiv 14/07/08). It includes all 27 EU nations, the 12 Mediterranean countries which are members of the EU's Barcelona Process and the four Balkan countries bordering the Mediterranean.
One of the key objectives was the establishment of a free trade area by 2010, but progress has so far been slow and lacks a political dimension.
And the choice of a seat for the newly-created organisation seems to have evaporated a lot of the goodwill and energy needed to launch the project. After a four-month diplomatic struggle, EU foreign ministers finally agreed that Barcelona would host the headquarters of the new organisation (EurActiv 6/11/08).
"Even if everyone agreed to organise a summit every two years and to share co-chair between France and Egypt, the UfM doesn't yet have a secretariat or permanent committees to prepare meetings and to follow them through," del Picchia lamented.
It is also unclear whether France will pass on its co-chair to Sweden when the Nordic country takes over the rotating EU Presidency in July. In January, the Czech Republic declined to take the seat when it assumed the EU helm from France.
Del Picchia also stressed that funding for the UfM is not yet clearly defined, saying the wording of Paris declaration, which launched the UfM in July 2008, is "extremely vague" on the subject.
Gaza crisis
The Israeli military incursion into Gaza in January "blocked a lot of things," the senator explained. "The Arab countries were reluctant to continue to participate in the UfM" after the war, he said.
"Israel did not want the Arab League to attend meetings," del Picchia added. Thus several meetings were cancelled, including a major ministerial one in Jordan on water.
As things stand now, there are no more meetings on the agenda. "The process is half-frozen," del Picchia admitted, before insisting that "the project remains". "Experts and diplomats are working ahead without the official endorsement of the institutions."
"The UfM objective is to say that if we can not agree politically, we must at least try to implement the projects," del Picchia further elaborated. "One or two countries from the north can agree with some southern countries to implement projects," he pointed out. If this works, other countries will join such initiatives, he said.
"If north and south are able to achieve concrete projects, we will be able to think about a political solution," the French senator believes.
Financial crisis
Asked about the effects of the financial crisis on the project, del Picchia said it could be either positive or negative. "Some countries may choose to fund projects which create jobs," he said. "Moreover, some markets may experience strong growth in the south of the Mediterranean and thus assist countries in the north who now have financial or industrial problems."
