Last week, the leaders of Arab Mediterranean countries met in Libya at the invitation of Muammar Al-Qaddafi to consider French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposal for a Mediterranean Union. The summit was designed to formulate an Arab stance on the subject prior to a gathering of all countries involved in Paris on July 13.
The Libyan leader told the presidents of Algeria, Syria, Tunisia and Mauritania and the prime minister of Morocco that the proposal was doomed to failure, an insult to Arabs and Africans and a threat to their own separate efforts at unity; the Arabs had the Arab League as their instrument of unity, and those in North Africa had the African Union in addition. There was a degree of uncharacteristic common sense in what he said, although Qaddafi is less than convincing as a champion of either Arab or African unity. He has boycotted many Arab summits and for the past ten years pointedly turned his back on the Arab world proclaiming Libya’s destiny is with Africa. Earlier this year, however, the threat was to turn his back on Africa and pull out billions on investments there if it refuses his proposals for closer unity.
Nonetheless, his analysis of the French proposal is not wide of the mark. The fact is it could create a conflict of interests for North African and Eastern Mediterranean states. So far only two of them endorse it, Egypt and Tunisia. Conflict of interests is also an issue for the EU: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is fiercely opposed to it because of the implications for EU unity.
There is another well-nigh insurmountable barrier. Arab Mediterranean countries will balk at being a member of a club that will include Israel. It is difficult to see Libya, Syria or Lebanon or Algeria joining. Indeed, it is difficult to see them turning up at the Paris meeting next month if the Israelis are invited. Equally, the political reality is that no European Mediterranean country will join if Israel is excluded. The chances then are that Sarkozy’s big idea is not going to be so much strangled at birth as stillborn.
We know what the French plan was; it is to keep Turkey out of Europe. That makes it a very bad idea and is the reason why the UK opposes it.
But even if the idea of a formal Mediterranean union comes to nothing, there is a need for cooperation across the Mediterranean. There are common issues — illegal trafficking and mass immigration in search on better pastures — not to mention a great deal of trade. The issues that France wants discussed next month — pollution in the Mediterranean, water and solar energy plans and a proposal for joint civil protection operations — and there are many more, need a forum for them to be planned, adopted and enacted. Something less than a grandiose formal union is a more realistic ambition — perhaps an “Arab League-EU special commission” with others not members of either organization represented as well; yet even that would be plagued by difficulties.
