Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-14-Speech-3-182"
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"en.20070314.17.3-182"2
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".
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased – even more so after what I have just heard – to present this report to you today.
The implications of such an area and the changes that it will bring about call for a more cautious approach on the part of all the partners, particularly when those partners are unequal. When looking ahead to the creation of this free trade area, the main theme must remain the objective of having a form of trade that serves development and the reduction of poverty, particularly in this region in which 30% of the population lives on USD 2 a day and in which mass unemployment and uncontrolled immigration are the only prospects for a growing number of young people.
Our priority must be to create a genuine Euro-Mediterranean socio-economic area, integrating all of the social and environmental issues into the economic dimension.
That is why I advocate a free trade area that is developed in a progressive, managed, gradual and concerted way. It must also be adapted to the socio-economic situation in each of the countries.
Markets cannot be opened up to the detriment of the countries of the South, with the risk that a number of today’s sensitive key sectors will be further weakened, as a result of a competitive struggle.
We all know that their agriculture is uncompetitive and not very diverse, with a majority of smallholdings needing their structures modernised, and that it requires us to look more deeply into a form of integrated agricultural policy, centred around food safety.
We also know that there are countries in which a form of low-technology and low added value industry has developed, which must be helped by means of investment in the areas of training and research, and also through the modernisation of its production structures; we know that we should not put pressure on these countries to suddenly open up their service markets, while maintaining public services outside the framework of the negotiations.
We need to keep a close eye on all of that, otherwise we will have worked to achieve the opposite effect of the development that we wanted and to the detriment of the social well-being of the populations concerned. That is why it seems vital to me that we grant our partners the right to manage the rate at which they open up to trade and the way in which they organise their development strategy.
It therefore proves vital to strengthen the overall competitiveness of the economies of the MED countries in order to guarantee their economic diversification, their successful integration into international trade and the fair distribution of the expected benefits; to maintain an asymmetric system based on trade preferences and continued use of supply-side management tools; to attract investment, of which there is little in this area; to provide a stable investment area and to provide for regional Euro-Mediterranean infrastructure and transport networks; and to work towards a closer political and economic alignment in the SEMCs, in order to help genuinely strengthen cooperation and integration.
To conclude, I should like to stress the urgent need for a renewal of political will among all of the partners and for the return of real cooperation as one of the Union’s priorities, both of which are conditions essential to the revival and success of the Barcelona process and of a Euro-Mediterranean socio-economic area. Without them, the free trade area is in danger of becoming the symbol of the Euromed misunderstanding. As far as my generation is concerned, it is vital that we move on to a time of reconciliation – that is the challenge that we have to address, ladies and gentlemen. Guaranteeing the stability and development of this area means guaranteeing the development of democracy and of our stability.
It testifies to the fact that the Union’s Mediterranean policy is a priority for our institution and that it must remain so. The report that I am submitting to you analyses the results of more than 12 years of cooperation laid down in the objectives of the Barcelona Conference. It makes some proposals in favour of the implementation of a mutually beneficial Euro-Mediterranean free trade area. This piece of work, completed over several months, was made possible by the close cooperation that I enjoyed with various experts, NGOs, government representatives of the countries of the Mediterranean and, of course, my fellow MEPs. May I thank them for their cooperation.
This sound collective knowledge, sustained by the constructive work of the shadow rapporteurs – to whom I am sincerely grateful – has enabled me, I believe, to come up with a balanced text that reflects all of the worries and questions. This spirit, this overall balance reinforced by the vote in committee, must guide tomorrow’s vote in plenary.
First and foremost, we must establish something. Although each part of the world has its own specific nature, relations between the Union and the countries of the southern Mediterranean are marked by the weight of history, a history of conflict, lack of understanding and instability, a troubled, even tragic, history.
That is why I have tried to draft this report above all from an eminently political perspective. A hope was born with the Barcelona Summit in 1995. The political will demonstrated was to build a global partnership between the European Union and the countries of the Mediterranean basin, with the aim of making this region a common area of peace, stability and prosperity. However, we must conclude, today, that the results are not equal to the hopes and expectations.
Since then, we have been living in an unstable political context: the war in Lebanon, the lack of peace prospects in the Middle East, complex relations since 11 September 2001 between the Western world and Arab-Muslim countries and strained relations between the partners of the South. Added to that is the idea – which I consider mistaken – that Europe does not give priority to its relationship with the countries of the southern Mediterranean.
One might add to this list of concerns the fear of seeing the Barcelona philosophy and the new neighbourhood policy advocated by the European Union weakened. That would spell the end of convergence and the introduction of divergence, fuelled by competition between countries.
The context is also one of asymmetry in the three areas of the economy, society and demographics. This striking asymmetry between the two parties to the free trade area, namely the Union and the countries of the Mediterranean, is just as striking between the countries of the Southern Mediterranean and, ultimately, within some of those countries themselves, between coastal and urbanised regions and within rural territories.
Faced with all these difficulties, a strong political will is required, but we must also show that we are realistic. It is for that reason and in view of the sometimes considerable delays in implementing the economic and political reforms needed to create a genuine Euro-Mediterranean market that I think it necessary to revise the 2010 deadline as the date on which this free trade area will enter into force."@en1
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