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Lowering the fence
We are back to the idea of a Euro-Mediterranean dialogue that started years ago and has so far led nowhere
- By Amir Taheri, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:39 July 15, 2008
- Image Credit: Illustration by Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News
Bureaucrats know that the best way to kill a project is to submit it to a commission. Politicians do the same by holding a summit. This is what France's President Nicolas Sarkozy may well have done with his own idea of a Mediterranean Union. Last weekend he presided over a summit attended by heads of state and government from 43 countries. A nice resolution was passed at the end of which most of the 43 appeared in front of cameras saying "cheese".
Was this another instannce of a nice idea killed at inception by bad execution? It is too early to tell. What is certain, however, is that the show unfolded in Paris had nothing to do with the original idea that inspired Sarkozy before he became president. The idea was to create mechanisms that would allow nations bordering on the Mediterranean to forge closer ties and, in time, create a common space in which they could revive and restore at least some of the ties that bound them together for millennia until history divided the region between Islam and Christendom. After that, it became a frontier that divided them.
The Mediterranean is unsuited to the role of frontier. Of the major bodies of water on the globe, it is the narrowest. It is almost an inland sea, opening to the oceans only through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar.
On its eastern shores, the hinterland is separated from Black Africa and the Middle East by vast tracts of desert. On its western shores, the hinterland is cut off from the rest of Europe by mountains and forests. It is not difficult to imagine a Mediterranean area that, while connected with Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has its own distinct natural unity. For centuries, the ancient Roman Empire reflected that existential reality. Despite Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's misgivings that led to his boycott of the Paris summit, there is, of course, no question of reviving the Roman Empire. However, it is quite possible to revive the common space that the Roman Empire had created. The problem, however, is that most of the states on the western shores of the sea are already members of the European Union that includes countries that have no physical connection with the inland sea.
Initially, Sarkozy had hoped to foster a happy bigamous situation. France would remain at the heart of the European Union while forging a separate love affair with fellow Mediterranean nations. However, the European Union, acting as a very jealous first wife, would have none of that. The result is a menage a trois in which the 17 countries that touch on the Mediterranean are joined by 26 others that do not. (Among the 17, we have included Britain because of its presence in Gibraltar, and the Palestinian National Authority because of Gaza's coastline.)
In other words, we are back to the idea of a Euro-Mediterranean dialogue that started years ago and has so far led to nowhere. The term "union" cannot hide the fact that actual Mediterranean countries form a minority of the members.
In fact, the term union itself is no more than trompe l'oeil. It took the Common market almost half a century to transform itself into a "union". The United States had to experience the ordeal of a civil war to merit its union. Now, however, we have a union based on a three-hour-long meeting followed by what was no doubt a good dinner.
What is possible, however, is the creation of an association of Mediterranean states designed to tackle a set of specific tasks. Even then, it is clear that in most cases more could be achieved through a string of bilateral accords.
In some areas of policy, the emergence of a Mediterranean Union could, in fact, amount to a step backwards. Morocco and Israel, for example, have had close economic and trade ties to the European Union for more than five decades. Will they be pressed down to the same level as some other members of the proposed Mediterranean Union, for example, Montenegro and Palestine?
Security fields
When it comes to cooperation in security fields, six of the non-EU members of the proposed Mediterranean Union either are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) or have special agreements with the alliance. France itself has just decided to rejoin Nato that it quit in 1966. Others, however, are anxious not to develop any links with Nato.
The Islam-Christendom divide that turned the Mediterranean into a frontier for peoples on both its shores is unlikely to be effaced anytime soon. However, this frontier need not be a line of hostilities drawn in blood and the tragic memories of the Crusades and colonialism. The high fence erected by centuries could be lowered, allowing neighbours on both sides to talk to each other. Though messy and confusing, the Paris summit may well prove to be a promising step in that direction.
Amir Taheri is an Iranian writer based in Europe.
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