Together, but...

All the players have their own agendas, so can the new Mediterranean union succeed, asks Doaa El-Bey

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy's months of work to bring all the states from the two sides of the Mediterranean together with members of the European Union will reap its fruits at next Sunday's inaugural summit of the Mediterranean Union to be held in Paris. The meeting aims to boost economic cooperation between countries bordering the Mediterranean.

Mohamed Abul-Einin, head of the Egyptian- European Council, said that the proposed union aims to build on the Barcelona Process, launched in 1995, which aimed to improve cooperation on economic, political and cultural levels, but has little to show for it. It is really an attempt to coordinate the economic needs of the southern Mediterranean states and find ways for the northern states to help them. "Egypt will play a vital role in identifying with the southern states the projects they need, and suggest how the northern states could finance them. This opens many fields of cooperation and investment between the north and south," Abul-Einin said. It is also a chance to solve many problems like illegal immigration, terrorism and the discrepancy of income between north and south.

The main obstacle was a threat of boycott, but now most of the states that initially declined to attend the inaugural summit have agreed to attend. The last head of state who declared that he would attend was the Algerian President Abdul- Aziz Bouteflika. After a meeting with Sarkozy on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Japan on Monday, the French president declared that his Algerian counterpart would attend. This was the first time that Bouteflika clearly declared his intention to attend the summit although Sarkozy repeatedly tried to convince him to attend, paying him an official visit and later dispatching top officials including his Prime Minister François Fillon to Algeria.

Even Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who staunchly opposed the idea, declared that he would attend the inaugural summit. He initially attacked the idea of the union especially when it was changed to comprise all the European Union members. He reiterated his rejection to any form of cooperation with Europe except in the framework of the Arab League and the African Union. He accused the union of aiming to fragment the African continent.

Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt welcomed Sarkozy's idea. Although each country showed some reservations, and asked for more information about the union, they were happy to attend the launching summit. Egypt is expected to head the southern Mediterranean states for two years. Cairo hosted the first coordinating meeting for the union in May during which the participating Arab states formulated their vision of the shape of cooperation they want from the union.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad accepted Sarkozy's invitation to take part in the launching of the union, a sign that indicates a thaw in the cold relations between the two countries and paves the way for a bigger French role in resolving the Syrian-Israeli conflict.

In spite of the Turkish objection to the idea of the union, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the meeting. Ankara worries that it is a French and European attempt to substitute Turkey's demand for full EU membership with membership in the lesser Mediterranean Union. Sarkozy is one of the European leaders who opposes Turkey's full EU membership and proposes a special status or special partnership.

The obstacles that hindered the Barcelona Process are still there. It ignores pressing political problems. The main problem is the failure to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Any cooperation among member states is likely to be hampered by the presence of Israel. Also the failure to start serious and direct Syrian-Israeli talks would impose another obstacle to full cooperation between member states. Abul-Einin does not regard the political problems as an obstacle. "On the contrary, when we establish a deeply rooted economic cooperation between member states, it could pave the way for peace and resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict," he said.

The volatile situation in Lebanon and the poor relations with Syria will be another hampering factor. Syrian support for Hizbullah and its relations with Iran will be unwelcome by France and Germany.

The union is Sarkozy's project. He came up with the idea in February last year during his presidential campaign. Since he was elected in May, he focussed on convincing states to join. He visited Algeria, Morocco and Egypt and dispatched top officials to other states. His original plan was to establish a union that comprises the states bordering the Mediterranean only. But the objection of some of the European Union members, especially Germany, changed the plan. The union is expected to comprise all the northern and southern states on the Mediterranean in addition to the 27 members of the European Union. It aims to boost economic cooperation between member states in the fields of environment, sustained development, treating pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, and establishing highways between the north and south.

Although the union is not expected to achieve a lot, it appears to have improved Sarkozy's relations with Middle Eastern states and to have given him the chance to play a wider role in resolving the Arab Israeli conflict in the absence of a US role.