French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s grand design for a Mediterranean Union has been quietly denigrated elsewhere in Europe and the United States but it is already showing its worth. The formal meeting to discuss the new economic and political forum begins today with heads of state from most of the 22 countries of the Mediterranean littoral, and yesterday Sarkozy was demonstrating that this is potentially a very valuable new forum.
After talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the French leader greeted Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanon’s Michel Suleiman at the Elysee Palace. France, along with Qatar, whose Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani was also at the Elysee yesterday, is widely believed to have played an important role in persuading the Syrians to help end the constitutional impasse in Lebanon and persuade the political rivals to compromise and work together.
It can be expected that Sarkozy urged continued reconciliation and greater cooperation between Damascus and Beirut in order to ensure that Lebanon does not once again descend into conflict. It could be argued that for this alone, the foundation meeting of the Mediterranean Union (MU) has been worthwhile. But today will offer further opportunities. Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert will be there, as will Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert has said that he has no plans for a face-to-face encounter with Bashar but that is not to say that there will not be some contact between Syrian and Israeli delegations. The fact that the majority of Mediterranean states, with the exception of Libya, have agreed to attend the meeting has to be of some significance. Here is a new opportunity for neighboring countries to meet on neutral territory to discuss their differences and if necessary use the good offices of fellow MU states as intermediaries. That it itself is worthwhile.
Whether the MU as a new regional organization with economic and political aspirations has any greater future is a moot point. When Sarkozy first proposed it in May 2007, it seemed to be projected as a rival to the EU, but Brussels and, in particular, the Germans were quick to jump on the idea. The EU already has its Barcelona Process that is supposed to address the economic and social concerns of its Mediterranean neighbors. Sarkozy has, therefore, recast the MU as an adjunct to the EU. Turkey suspects the new grouping will be used to sideline its EU membership bid, which is opposed by France. Nevertheless Ankara has sent a delegation, if for no other reasons than that Turkey is an inveterate joiner of international bodies.
The outcome of today’s meetings, both public and private, may demonstrate what sort of a future the MU really has, and it is most unlikely to prove stillborn. This is an initiative, at the very worst entirely harmless and which, whatever Sarkozy’s personal agenda, seems to have much to commend it and thus deserves international support.
