The first summit of the Union for the Mediterranean in Marseilles |
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Collection title
Evening news Marseilles
First broadcast date
11/04/2008
Abstract
The first summit of the Union for the Mediterranean came to an end at the Palais du Pharo. The 27 European Ministers for Foreign Affairs are gathered with their homologues of the 16 countries of the Southern bank of the Mediterranean. A general consensus was drawn for Barcelona to host the seat of the UPM (Union for the Mediterranean). The two co-presidents are France and Egypt. Michel Vauzelle: "The UPM will have the PACA area benefiting from actions financed by Europe."
Production companies
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France 3 - Own production
Personalities
- Guaino Henri
- Vauzelle Michelle
Primary theme
Contemporary historical challenges 19th-20th c.
Credits / Cast
- Girard F. - Journalist
- Di Cesare F. - Journalist
- Besnard E. - Journalist
Map locations
- France - South East - Marseille
Context
Mediterranean Landmarks
Union for the Mediterranean First Summit in Marseille
For two days, the 3rd and the 4th of November 2008, Marseille hosted the Summit aiming to put to action the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) previously launched in Paris on the 13th of July. Foreign ministers of the EU countries and their counterparts from the southern shore of the Mediterranean were convened to determine the mechanism of action of the UfM and choose the location of its headquarters. Many cities were in the running; Marseille was a candidate along with Tunis which enjoyed the support of Nicolas Sarkozy but the choice eventually fell on Barcelona where the "Barcelona Process" which laid the foundations to the UfM was launched in 1995. Having chosen the headquarters to be in a northern country, the assembly decided that the Secretary General would be from a southern country (a Jordanian was chosen). Settling the parity between the north and the south, the Secretary General would be aided by 5 deputies; 3 northerners and 2 southerners. Moreover the Arab League was accepted as a fully-fledged member.
Nicolas Sarkozy was first to take the initiative to form this union, back while he was still a presidential candidate during a meeting in Toulon on the 6th of May 2007. Once elected, he reiterated his call during a speech made in Tangier, on the 23rd of October that same year. He invited all state leaders bordering the Mediterranean to participate, on equal footing, in the creation of the UfM during a conference in Paris in June 2008 while France was set to preside over the European Union. On the 13th of July, the founding summit was held in Paris, after an invitation from France and Egypt which co-presided over the summit. Under pressure from Germany, which was discontent with an initiative launched without agreement raising concern within the European Union, the union was officially named: "Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean". However, the creation of the UfM is considered a diplomatic success for France which was able to gather almost all the countries bordering the Mediterranean including Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the exception of Libya which enjoys an observer status only, since Colonel Gaddafi, aspiring to leadership in Africa, was strongly opposed to the initiative. As a framework promoting peace in the Middle East, the UfM seemed to start off under the right circumstances as its creation was preceded, on the 12th of July 2008, by a meeting in the Élysée between the Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad and the Lebanese President, Michel Suleiman, who committed to normalize relations between their two countries.
The UfM chose, first, to deal with unifying and consensual issues:
· Environmental remediation of the Mediterranean including coastal areas and the creation of protected marine areas,
· Establishment of maritime and land highways to improve connections between seaports and facilitate the movement of people and goods,
· Civil protection program to address natural or man-made disasters' risks,
· Mediterranean Solar Plan,
· Euro-Mediterranean University;
· Mediterranean Business Development Initiative.
Conversely, issues such as immigration, the nature of political regimes of the participating countries and the Middle East issue were set aside at least in the beginning, so as not to affect, later, the proper functioning of the UfM. It is to be noted that for the French president and his majority, the UfM was created to provide an alternative to the Turkish candidacy to enter the European Union, to which they were, and remain, opposed.
For his part, anxious to stand out and propose a more ambitious framework, Michel Vauzelle, President of the Alps-Mediterranean Euroregion and President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur, had called for a "Marshall Plan" for the Mediterranean to "ensure peace and security in the euro-Mediterranean area whose people are bound by their common destiny". This call reiterated an idea which Spain and Italy had previously put forward.
The idea of a Marshall Plan or a community following the ECSC model (European Coal and Steel Community, founded in 1954 by Jean Monnet, premise of the EU) regained force with the revolutions in the Arab world taking place since 2011. It is true that the UfM, already weakened by the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip in the late 2008, is likely to disappear, since its main proponent, France, had previously supported the ousted dictators in Egypt and Tunisia.
