Although the second summit of the Union for the Mediterranean being held in Barcelona on 7 June is taking place in difficult circumstances, members of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee are determined that the process be given a new boost. The fresh impetus the UfM needs will require a historic commitment by heads of state and government to provide adequate funding for major projects and consolidate the institutions underpinning the process.

MEPs voiced their support for the UfM in a resolution drafted by Vincent (S&D, FR) and adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee on the eve of the second summit scheduled for 7 June in Barcelona.

The UfM has undergone a period of political stagnation since the Gaza conflict of December 2008, despite the resumption of meetings of ministers and senior officials since September 2009. MEPs stress that regional conflicts - notably the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also those in Cyprus and the Western Sahara - must not limit the possibility of progressing towards sectoral and multilateral cooperation, although they believe the UfM cannot be a complete success without this.

In addition, the UfM needs the commitment of heads of state and government to make the second summit a success for launching the UfM's institutions and to ensure major projects receive adequate funding.

The resolution underlines the limits of the neighbourhood policy conducted with the Mediterranean countries. By stressing bilateral relations at the expense of a global approach, it says, this policy has not helped contribute to a process of integration and significant reform in the region, in terms of democratic progress.

Six major projects

The UfM, launched in July 2008 in Paris, was intended to revitalise the Barcelona process by structuring cooperation with the Mediterranean countries around six major projects (civil protection, maritime and land highways, de-pollution of the Mediterranean Sea, a Mediterranean solar energy plan, the Mediterranean Business Development Initiative and a Euromediterranean university) and envisaging the creation of a permanent secretariat from the beginning of March 2010.

Adequate funding

The resolution proposes that the secretariat be given adequate funding to enable it to function.  The secretariat, headed by the Jordanian Ahmed Maas'deh, with six deputy secretaries-general of whom one will be an Israeli and one a Palestinian, will have to breathe new life into a process which is stagnating. The secretariat will have to ensure coordination with the European Commission and in particular EuropeAid and the EIB, which is a major funder of the UfM.

In the longer term, MEPs want to see a considerable increase in the resources for the UfM in the EU's financial perspective for 2014-2020.  The resolution also proposes the creation of a Euromediterranean investment and development bank.

A major part of the UfM's new projects must be devoted to teaching, school and university exchanges and research, including upgrading the Erasmus Mundus programmes for the Mediterranean and the creation of a Mediterranean Erasmus junior, to step up educational exchanges between the Member States of the UfM, believe MEPs.

The resolution supports a rapid implementation of the Mediterranean solar energy project DESERTEC, emphasises the need to develop maritime highways and urges the UfM countries to move towards greater convergence of Euro-mediterranean agriculture policies, in particular as regards rules on food safety, plant health, environmental issues and product quality.

Migration policies are one of the priorities of the Euro-mediterranean partnership.  The states and institutions of the UfM should devote special attention to the coordinated management of migratory flows, says the resolution.

Strengthening parliamentary scrutiny of the UfM

The institutional architecture of the UfM will not be complete without parliamentary scrutiny of the process, which should be devolved to the Euromediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA), which should become the parliamentary assembly of the UfM,   It could be renamed "Parliamentary Assembly - Union for the Mediterranean", in line with the proposal made at the 6th plenary session in Amman in March 2010.

The EMPA should, according to the resolution, provide democratic scrutiny as to the direction of the work, the follow up of projects and the budgetary implementation of the process.  In addition, parliamentary committees of the EMPA should conduct regular hearings of the secretary general and the deputy secretaries-general.