Launched on 13 July 2008 in Paris, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is basically a remodelling of the Barcelona Process that Spain helped get off the ground back in 1995. There was really no need to go to all that trouble, but Nicolas Sarkozy originally had something very different in mind when he initiated this second phase. In February 2007, on the stump in Toulon, the then presidential candidate proposed setting up a union made up solely of countries on the Mediterranean coast to supersede the Barcelona Process, which had not made much headway in 12 years' time. Sarkozy's objectives were threefold: the immediate goal was to woo French voters of North African or Middle Eastern descent by announcing large-scale development projects on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. A more long-term goal was to re-establish French hegemony in the region. And the third, more surreptitious object, was to provide a way out for Turkey, seeing as France remained adamantly opposed to its full integration into the EU. From the outset, the project had to reckon with staunch opposition from Italy and Spain, and, even after a thoroughgoing overhaul, it was only saved by the intervention of Germany, which, though obviously not a Mediterranean country, is nonetheless heavily involved in the region by dint of its economic interests. So the UfM morphed into an EU 27 institution that was to press ahead with the Barcelona Process, which, in the words of Angela Merkel, "just needed to be revitalized". And when Spain succeeded in getting the permanent secretariat domiciled in Barcelona, it no longer raised any objections to the re-establishment of the UfM.
Launched on 13 July 2008 in Paris, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is basically a remodelling of the Barcelona Process that Spain helped get off the ground back in 1995. There was really no need to go to all that trouble, but Nicolas Sarkozy originally had something very different in mind when he initiated this second phase.
In February 2007, on the stump in Toulon, the then presidential candidate proposed setting up a union made up solely of countries on the Mediterranean coast to supersede the Barcelona Process, which had not made much headway in 12 years' time. Sarkozy's objectives were threefold: the immediate goal was to woo French voters of North African or Middle Eastern descent by announcing large-scale development projects on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. A more long-term goal was to re-establish French hegemony in the region. And the third, more surreptitious object, was to provide a way out for Turkey, seeing as France remained adamantly opposed to its full integration into the EU.
From the outset, the project had to reckon with staunch opposition from Italy and Spain, and, even after a thoroughgoing overhaul, it was only saved by the intervention of Germany, which, though obviously not a Mediterranean country, is nonetheless heavily involved in the region by dint of its economic interests. So the UfM morphed into an EU 27 institution that was to press ahead with the Barcelona Process, which, in the words of Angela Merkel, "just needed to be revitalized". And when Spain succeeded in getting the permanent secretariat domiciled in Barcelona, it no longer raised any objections to the re-establishment of the UfM.
Then, one year later, where's the beef?
If actions speak louder than words, well, our president is much quieter than you would believe... Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
