8 - 14 November 2001
Issue No.559
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 8 - 14 November 2001 Issue No.559 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Time for action
The Middle East peace process remained the main topic of discussion at the fifth EuroMed meetings. But this year international terrorism also shared the spotlight. Soha Abdelaty reports
Once again, this time in Brussels, foreign ministers from 27 European and Mediterranean countries, attending the annual Euro-Mediterranean partnership conference, realised that to enhance cooperation between the wealthier EU members (12) and their poorer southern partners (15), the Middle East peace process might need to be addressed. Once again, the ministers realised that a stalled peace process can choke other vital issues, such as economic, social and cultural relations. And once again, countries of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, established by the 1995 Barcelona process, found that another "hot" issue has invaded their meetings: this time, it's the war on terror.
Ahmed Maher
But officials at the annual ministerial meeting, held this week, hoped the issues could be linked by more than just blood shed. Some officials hoped the US response to the 11 September attacks would kick start the peace process in the Middle East. They argued that the demands of the war on terror has made the West realise that it has a stake in a durable Middle East peace. "developments around the world have pressed the Western world, (the US and Europe), to play a more pronounced role in trying to find a solution," Mohamed Shaaban, assistant foreign minister for European affairs, told Al- Ahram Weekly. Shaaban added that the West has come to realise that Palestinian grievance "has been exploited by international terrorism, which claims it as a pretext for destruction."
This realisation has, it seems, made Europe determined to propel the peace process forward. "We absolutely need to start a new dialogue in the Middle East in the near future," Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said on Monday. To this end, European officials organised several meetings with Palestinian and Israeli officials on the outskirts of the Euro-Med meetings, mainly to discuss a new European initiative. Verhofstadt, whose country currently presides over the European Union (EU), brokered an "informal gathering" between the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Monday. No "decisions" stemmed from the meeting, but a Belgian government spokesman explained that it was meant to restore confidence between the two sides, on the basis of "new minimal security measures" proposed by Belgium. The meeting was also meant to pave the way for a 15-18 November fact-finding mission in the Middle East led by Verhofstadt on behalf of the EU.
These initiatives were welcomed by Egypt, which has long urged the US and Europe to play a more extensive role in the Middle East. Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, who headed the Egyptian delegation in Brussels, said, "if we look back at the political moves of the past few months, we will find that not a day went by without a high-profile European official in the region." In addition, a day earlier, seven European leaders at a mini-summit in London had all unanimously agreed on the need to establish a Palestinian state.
Nevertheless, caution remains. All sides are waiting to see what action, if any, follows talk. "Europe stands now with justice and legitimacy. What is needed now, after such a stance, are positive moves as well as the continuous visits to the region," said Maher in Brussels.
Yet despite all these hopeful European initiatives, and despite the fact that this year all 27 member states attended the meetings (Syria and Lebanon boycotted last year's) the situation on the ground remains dismal. "I see no light at the end of the tunnel," lamented Shaaban. "The situation [in the occupied territories] has deteriorated further and further [since last year's meeting]," he said.
The second day of meetings was devoted to the two other main strands of the Barcelona Declaration: the economic and financial partnership, and the social, cultural and humanitarian partnership. In the second field of cooperation, there was a spill-over from the first, as Arab countries refracted their worries about the impact of the 11 September attacks on their economies.
Another contentious issue between the two sides was the MEDA II financial assistance program. MEDA II promised the southern countries 5.35 billion Euros worth of assistance; but the programme's success has been limited thanks to "bureaucracy, red tape and slow, complex procedures," explained Shaaban. "Even when there was a commitment," he said, "the actual disbursement of the funds was slow."
In addition, the bilateral association agreements signed between individual Mediterranean countries and the EU have been plagued with problems. The four countries that signed the agreements, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, have complained that the European Commission uses these agreements to impose non-tariff barriers through the "back door."
The long-term objective of the Barcelona Declaration is to establish a free- trade zone in the region by the year 2010, as well as establishing a lasting peace.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page