Mediterranean dream expected him for so long

And if the Union for the Mediterranean, the project launched with great fanfare the eve of July 14, 2008 by President Nicolas Sarkozy, was not dead A little far projectors of the Euro-Mediterranean news focused on the Greece and his rescue last week its first Secretary-General, a Jordanian diplomat, Ahmad Massa'deh, took office at a ceremony in Barcelona with the representatives of 43 countries involved in this process.

After many negotiations, Byzantine, to overcome obstacles which seemed yet there are few insurmon-tables, six posts of Deputy Secretary-General were divided: a Palestinian in charge of water and the environment, an Israeli for education, a Turkish transport, a Maltese for Social Affairs, a Greek for energy, and an Italian for the financing of projects and SMEs. And it is hoped that a representative of a country of the Maghreb, Morocco or Tunisia, is appointed at the next Summit of the heads of State or Government of June next in Spain, the co-chair for the South, a function currently occupied by Egypt.

This is the "small miracle", as said the week last in Barcelona the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner. Especially if it goes back to last November where the cancellation of the Summit in Istanbul due to the crisis in Gaza had been considered the death of the fledgling institution.

But there is also the factor "chance". The Spain, after the headquarters in Barcelona, the Secretariat, currently the rotating Presidency of the European Union and sought the torch of the France for the Euroméditerannée that appears thus in continuity with the moribund process of Barcelona from 1995.

And you can still add the fact that, last weekend, as if it could finally bring the two shores of the basin, in Granada, one of the same symbols cities of the mixture of Mediterranean civilization, the Morocco was the first Arab country and South to share a Summit with the European Union to twenty-seven.

This could be institutional. But today the proponents of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) want to advance from first concrete achievements such as the solar plan and the mobilization of private next to finance national and multilateral funding. The same Japan would have taken commitments and more than 230 projects in education, the Sun, the motorways of the sea, education or even civil protection were reviewed. The idea of developers is to achieve a kind of "variable geometry" between the different countries for the financing of the projects so that none can block him only as a whole as was the case with the rule of unanimity in the European Union in certain areas. And that public funding have a leverage effect. Politically, only the Libya still sulking project. Of course! Admittedly one indisputable, and discrete, advanced.

But is it to say that the UPM could play the role of what was in his time the European Community of coal and steel (ECSC) which had enabled the foundation of what is now the European Union

We are obviously very far. North and South of the Mediterranean shores remain always remote, and it is not geography by the sea, but by the disparate levels of development between the two shores. Suspicion still exists. The relationship between the France and the Algeria are unlikely be resolved. The Maghreb, or the "small" (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) nor, a fortiori, the great (with Mauritania, the Libya), exists as an economic entity. Even the Cyprus issue is not resolved.

In addition, unlike in the 1950s in Europe between French, Germans and Italians, Israelis and Palestinians not yet took the path of peace. Which makes very difficult the achievement in the middle of this project. Today, the Turkey, whose entry into the European Union is more and more remote if it is permanently deferred, turned to his other space, to the East, towards the Iran including. Which could further complicate matters. And it is not yet certain that the Germany, after having torpedoed the initial project of President Sarkozy to Mediterranean Union that was out of "paternalism" in the North-South relations in the basin, is totally convinced of this new institution while the time is the tightening of fiscal policy in Europe. The European Commission has, she agreed to participate only in reverse. Forced to expand the project to 27 European countries including North. In addition, in France even jealousies between diplomats and advisers in the Elysee Palace have not always facilitated the task of the launch of the project. The purpose of the business, to one day reach to ensure peace, stability and prosperity among all the neighbours on the southern shore is in any case not for tomorrow.

But where the promoters of the UPM are right, it is that it will take well, not a few months, but ten or twenty years, to see if the projects encouraged by this institution has been made. It is this yardstick there that will decide success or failure, and not just the ability to build a new institution and to convene summits. Mediterranean dream expected, him for so long.