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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Europe wants in
By Dina EzzatIt has been a time for Egyptian-European talks. Visiting Cairo this week, and the previous week, were the foreign ministers of France, Britain, the Czech Republic and Portugal -- the latter the current chair of the European Union -- and the EU high commissioner on foreign policy.
The basic message that these five officials were putting across to the top Egyptian officials they met was that the Europeans are interested in playing a greater role in the final stages of the Arab-Israeli peace process and in a post-settlement scenario -- at least on the economic front.
"We are aware that the political settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict is going to remain under the auspices of the US, but what we want to do is to avoid being left out of the post-settlement arrangement," a European diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly.
So, while the Europeans were offering to step up work on previously agreed plans, they were also bringing in new ideas.
In this respect, Cairo's European visitors made it clear that they fully support Euro-Mediterranean cooperation as articulated in the Barcelona Declaration and its subsequent associated work plans.
According to statements made by the EU foreign ministers, what they want to do is help establish a zone of peace and stability, and a Euro-Mediterranean economic area, based on free trade, mutual understanding and human exchanges.
Egypt's European visitors said that despite the problems that occur once in a while with the peace process, the negotiations are still going on and, therefore, there is a new political situation in the region that gives Europe the opportunity to re-affirm its commitment to Barcelona's ambitious objectives that were outlined in the mid-1990s.
"The Barcelona process is very important... It was the only process where Israel and the Arabs sat together for dialogue during the past difficult years [of the peace process]," said British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook following talks with Foreign Minister Amr Moussa. He added, "A settlement [of the Arab-Israeli dispute] can help the process show its potentials". According to Cook, this process may prove to be the best framework for trade for around three quarters of a billion people in "the aftermath of a peace settlement".
Cairo is encouraging a greater European economic involvement in the Middle East. "We think it is important for the Europeans to provide economic support for peace, particularly if we are talking about the Palestinians who need a big economic boost," commented one diplomat.
But what the Europeans want to do with the Middle East goes much beyond Euro-Mediterranean cooperation. The EU is now working on a new strategy for the Middle East that will encompass non-Mediterranean members of the region. According to Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy commissioner, this strategy is being worked out because the scope of Barcelona does not satisfy the potential of cooperation between Europe and its neighbours. "We are trying to work along the same lines that we started in 1995 [with the Barcelona Declaration] but we are also trying to make what we do adapted to the times. Today is not 1995," he said.
This new European strategy on the Middle East, sources suggest, attempts, among other things, to provide a good format for closer cooperation between Israel and the Arab Gulf states under a European umbrella. It also aims to consider regional security arrangements to which Europeans, Arabs, and Israel could be partner.
This security perspective is necessarily separable from recent NATO plans to widen its scope of military intervention beyond the territories of its member-states to countries where it has vital interests.
"We would not support the perception of NATO as a world policeman, but what we want to see is an institutionalised dialogue between NATO and the countries of the region," said Jan Kavan, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic.
"It is important that we start to think of what we can do in a scenario of Middle East peace," said Hubert Vedrine, the French foreign minister following talks with Moussa.
Indeed, the European input in the post-peace Middle East is currently being decided at EU headquarters in Brussels. Some countries are talking about providing the Palestinians with greater economic aid. Other countries are thinking of investing in Syria or helping with the reconstruction of the war-devastated parts of Lebanon. Budgets are being drafted for European financing of joint Arab-Israeli water projects. Other budgets are being prepared for financing the peace-keeping forces that some European countries would like to send to the Golan Heights once Israel and Syria reach a deal.
Jaime Gama, the Portuguese foreign minister whose country is chairing the EU until June, presented the EU Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels this week with a report about his recent Middle East tour. In addition to the notes made by other European officials who have been to the region, the report should help the EU decide what it wants in the region, and what it does not want.
Moreover, the EU is preparing to take part in multilateral talks that are scheduled to be resumed in Moscow on 1 February.
