The mainly Arabic-speaking Maghreb countries want to be seen as full partners within the proposed Union for the Mediterranean despite the existence of marked disparities between the two shores of the sea that separates Europe from Africa.
"Europe must take its partners from the southern shore of the Mediterranean not as poor countries which should be given handouts but as states worthy of full partnership status," Moulay Hafid Elalamy, president of the association of Moroccan employers, said recently.
"Both sides of the Mediterranean should not start sizing each other up, trying to protect themselves from one another, they should instead try to see how, hand in hand, they can work together to become even more stronger," Elalamy said on the sidelines of Euro-Mediterranean exhibition in Marseilles, southern France, last week.
According to keen observers, Elalamy, who is the president of the General Confederation of Moroccan Companies (CGEM), was simply summing up the overall feelings of the five North African countries invited to the July 13 summit in Paris.
Despite having difficult relations, Algeria deeply shares the concerns of Rabat, which does not see Europe impose its views on North Africa. "At least up to this point, we can say there is a convergence of views between the two countries," said an Algiers-based western diplomat during a recent interview.
"The countries of the southern shore fear that the European Commission will monopolize the decisions, because our relations with the EU are unbalanced and the decision belongs to those who have the funds and know-how currently," Algerian Minister Foreign Mourad Medelci was quoted as saying recently.
While only 15 km separate the two shores of the Mediterranean, the economic contrast is screaming and can be seen by everyone. While the average per capita income for the northern countries is estimated at 26,000 U.S. dollars, it is only 7,000 U.S. dollars in the south.
In addition, the European Union's weight is enormous as it collectively represents up to 86 percent of the GDP of countries expected to participate in the UPM.
"We want to reverse this imbalance and build a balanced, equal and transparent partnership," said the Algerian foreign minister, stressing that this must be based on "the concept of responsibility, so that the spirit of initiative and the implementation of projects is not only the preserve of one party, as has been the case in the past."
For Tunisia, the proposed union remains important even if its initial content has been watered down following the expression of fears and concerns from a section of the 27 European Union member countries.
"It is a very promising initiative" that is likely "to afford the southern Mediterranean countries ways and means to achieve their ambitions in terms of complementarity and integration with the European Union," Emna Chtioui, Tunisian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, told reporters last week.
If the Mauritanian President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi has officially confirmed his arrival in Paris, the proposed union, which is personal initiative of President Nicolas Sarkozy, has been faulted by Libya.
A month ago, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi spoke against the union and announced that his country will not play any part in its formation. To him, the project is some kind of a European ploy to divide and undermine both the African Union and the Arab League, two organizations whose member states, at least some, are taking part in the new body.
The Libyan leader believes that the economic projects that have been promised to southern Mediterranean countries lack "substance" and he has likened them to "a humiliation." "We are neither hungry nor dogs for someone to throw bones at us," the outspoken leader lashed out recently.
"If Europe wants to cooperate with us, it can do so within the framework of the Arab League or the African Union... we refuse to accept deals with Europe as a group of countries," he said, noting that the EU itself had declined to be divided.
This fear of seeing a torn Africa is shared by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade. "The idea of a Mediterranean Union, if it happens, will mean that North Africa will henceforth be pegged to Europe," he said during an early June interview.
"The proposed union represents a barrier that will isolate sub-Saharan Africa and Africans need to be very aware of the inherent consequences and dangers," said Wade, who, like his Libyan counterpart, never shies away from controversy.
Source:Xinhua
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