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Difficult task begins now
There's a fear that the idea of a Mediterranean Union may not flourish
- By Pascal Boniface, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:05 July 21, 2008
Nicolas Sarkozy must be a satisfied man. The Mediterranean Union summit has been a diplomatic success for the French president. However, Sarkozy's project has been disputed by his European partners; first and foremost by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
They asked to enlarge it to encompass every European Union member and not to limit it only to Mediterranean countries. Some Arab countries, which found themselves isolated in a too large partnership, also criticised it.
Arab leaders feared that it would be a unilateral diplomatic gift to Israel, without the Jewish state making any promise of progress on solving the Palestinian issue.
Sarkozy feared that opening the summit to all countries would discourage many heads of states from attending it. At a time when his popularity at home is on the downslide, he didn't want the summit to fail.
Suprisingly, it was not the case. Almost all leaders, with the exception of Libya's President Muammar Gaddafi and the King of Morocco Mohammad VI, attended the meeting, alongside the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. It was a great photo-opportunity for Sarkozy. For a few days, Paris was the centre of world diplomacy.
From the onset, Sarkozy made a comparison between the European Union and the Mediterranean Union. He recommended the launch of a pragmatic project, without the making of peace in the Middle East as a prerequisite. But the comparison was not accurate.
European countries were able to cooperate with each other because they first decided to make peace. Cooperation has strengthened peace but has not created it.
The decision to live in peace for good has been the first step, not the second one. The Mediterranean Union in its technical aspects could only succeed with a dialectical linkage with a global peace process in the region. The Palestinian case is just too important for Arab countries to be set aside.
Convinced
Sarkozy convinced the presidents of Syria and Lebanon to open their embassies in their respective countries. Until a few weeks ago, Lebanon, which was on the brink of a civil war, can now look for a brighter future.
Syria too can hope for better days as the formerly beleaguered and marginalised nation is now considered as a must partner. President Bashar Al Assad, a former diplomatic pariah, was the guest of honour at the summit. Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were pleased at the possible prospects of a peace agreement.
If the high level participation was unexpected, and paved the way for diplomatic triumph in Paris, the difficult task begins now.
Will the project be a reality?
Can we believe in an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement when Olmert is in a very weakened political situation? A Likud Party government chaired by Benjamin Netanyahu, who is hostile to any agreement with the Palestinians, could be incharge before next fall. On top of that, the colonisation of Palestinian territories - certainly not the best way to achieve peace - is still ongoing.
Abbas is also fragile and has little room to manoeuvre both on an internal stage (with the stalwart opposition of Hamas) and on the international front.
There is therefore fear that the success of the summit would not be followed by real results. One should not forget that when the Barcelona process (already a north-south Mediterranean cooperation project) was launched in 1995, there was a lot of optimism. It failed mostly because it was hijacked by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We can only hope that the political ambitions, heralded in Paris will not vanish, once the leaders return home.
Dr Pascal Boniface is the founder and director of IRIS (Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques). He has published or edited more than 40 books dealing with international relations, nuclear deterrence and disarmament, European security and French international policy.
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