The objectives of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM), which is set to be launched by French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a July 13 summit in Paris, "remain unclear," Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem has said, calling for more clarifications.
"Algeria strongly supports any initiative that would help bring the two shores of the Mediterranean together. But what was presented by President Sarkozy in 2007 is a watershed of what is being pushed forward today," said the Algerian prime minister, noting that the new structure would not go very far in addressing the myriad of concerns in the region.
The head of the Algerian government, who made the remarks on Wednesday, was speaking during an interview to be published on Thursday by the widely-read French newspaper Le Monde.
"Initially, the plan was to only involve countries bordering the Mediterranean. The goal was to build a union on the model of the European Union with projects based on a much variable geometry," said the Algerian prime minister.
"What we have now is a union for the Mediterranean rather than a Mediterranean union and its content remains unclear," said the prime minister, urging the chief architect of the project, President Nicolas Sarkozy, to clarify several grey areas in his proposal.
In the interview, Belkhadem also took time to stress that Algeria was in favor of a "union that would promote variable geometry projects," nevertheless, adding that this should not be used "to sneak in an agenda for the normalization of ties with Israel."
Commenting on the forthcoming visit of French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who is expected in Algiers on June 21 and 22, the prime minister expressed hope that this visit "will help strengthen the already strong relations between the two countries."
"They are already very good, but if we want to reach a privileged partnership, we need to give a new impetus to this partnership... In particular, we would like to see more French investments in Algeria, increased technical assistance and greater flexibility in the movement of people," said the Algerian prime minister.
The formation of the Union for the Mediterranean has slowly been accumulating problems since it was first proposed with notable opposition from Turkey, Germany and now Algeria as well as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who recently described it as "aimed at dividing the African Union and the Arab league and vowed to ensure that it never becomes a reality."
Source:Xinhua
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