A new Med voyage
Many of the 44 leaders who came to Paris for the Mediterranean Union summit will make their excuses and leave before the 14 July spectacle. Those who stay may enjoy a little booklet to help them spot the uniforms of the various French troops who will be marching down the Champs Elysees. I know it is the sort of thing I would have not only pored over, but memorised as a ten-year-old. The cloaked and heavily armed amphibious troops of the First Regiment of Spahis, and the bearded Sappers of the Foreign Legion would have been my favourites.
This sort of march-past is extremely rare in Europe, and the only countries in this neck of the woods who mount such displays would be the Turks and the Russians. But of course the French are particularly concerned with demonstrating that they are still a major power in their own right.
President Sarkozy was cock-a-hoop at the end of the meeting. He said his idea and initiative was "an extraordinary concept, and extraordinary gamble". He had asked the leaders of the Arab world to sit in the same room as the Israeli prime minister and the "wager paid off". He said that the real problem of the Middle East was a lack of trust, and he hoped to take a risk and establish that trust.
While it is still not clear why President Sarkozy thought up the idea of the Mediterranean Union in the first place, it's true the first ever summit in Paris this weekend made a real impact, at least in media terms. The Syrian president suggested that diplomatic relations with Lebanon might be established for the first time, and the Israeli prime minister said a deal with the Palestinians had never been closer. The churlish might suggest there was nothing new here. But as one diplomat put it, "freshness is not the point, it's the continuing thaw and it doesn't matter if the mood music is played twice". Statements were made in public and relayed to people round the region that wouldn't have been made without the Paris meeting. 
It is certainly higher profile than the already existing "Barcelona process", which set up similar links 13 years ago. But the Med Union will get its own bureaucracy in the form of a yet-to-be-established secretariat, at a yet-to-be-identified location and a joint permanent committee based in Brussels. There are also six concrete projects, with enough detail to keep policy wonks happy for decades to come.
A document that's been given out says that the North and South of the Med share not only interests but also a common destiny, although it is not spelt out what this destiny might be. It points out that the wealth divide between the North and South of the Med is at least 10 to one and that 40 million new jobs will have to be created in the next 15 years just to maintain unemployment at its present level.
The document sets out six big projects:
Combating pollution: The aim is to clean up the Med by 2020 and make it the cleanest sea in the world. There's a suggestion the whole of the seabed could be declared a protected area, there will be a new body to coordinate coastal protection and a more coherent development of projects like whale sanctuaries.
Transport: One potential aim is developing a modern railway network running from Casablanca to Istanbul, and a high-speed rail network linking Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. They also want to promote "motorways of the sea", which basically means modernising ports and integrating sea traffic with road links.
Civil Protection: The development of more coordination and eventually a common emergency response force to cope with earthquakes and fires, floods and drought.
Solar energy: Developing modern, large-scale solar power stations in North Africa and the Middle East to help the European Union meet its low-carbon targets.
Higher education: Greater contact between universities of North and South and common standards for approved courses.
Business: Spreading the Italian/Spanish Med Agency, which helps small businesses with financing to Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia and eventually to the whole region.
Doubtless some of these projects will move along quicker than others, some will work and others will fail. But can the Med Union permanently push the pace on the peace process, or is this first high-profile event a one-off?
I’m Mark Mardell, the BBC's North America editor. These are my reflections on American politics, some thoughts on being a Brit living in the USA, and who knows what else? My 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~15~RS~)
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dreams and more dreams, with what all this project can come real? chinese money?? or russian investment??
are this dream projects just the begining of fooling people? high speed train for north africa?? only good thing for middle east and north africa?? but not a mention of what EU and especially france is benefiting..
wonder why germany protested?
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i hope that this new "union"will succeed....
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What about DEMOCRACY?? where is it mentioned??
they accuse CHina and Russia of making deals with dictators...
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Jacques Berque was the original proponent of the MU theory; but his so called 'Orientalism' has been interpreted in two distinct ways...
You must understand what the word 'orient' means...
...originally as opposite to 'Occident' or western. (remember at this point the term was once used as a term for the middle east, then later the far east)
Whether his thoughts were of admiration for 'eastern' civilisation or seeing the east as subordinate/ inferior, has been debated before...
What is Sarkozy's interpretation; does it have any basis in the Orientalism?
Does it matter?
Above all: choose love.
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It is interesting to note your comment, "...But the Med Union will get its own bureaucracy in the form of a yet-to-be-established secretariat, at a yet-to-be-identified location and a joint permanent committee based in Brussels."
One can well imagine that as France is the sponsor of this revived-Barcelona concept that the 40,000 burcratic jobs required could well be created in France and the base will be Paris as it is not far form Brussels where the MU Secretariat will be based.
I bet this will go down well with President Sarkozy's domestic audience!
All that said, the amusing part about your blog item was the Bastille Day March-past which demonstrates French Military might and the French can demonstrate that they are still a major power in their own right.
Strangely enough, when it comes down to it the French have supplied a meagre 1515 troops to the ISAF forces in Afghanistan (this is a smaller contingent than the Dutch, German or Italian Contingents). Given the size of the French military this is a mere speck of dust.
I am sure that all the non-French ISAF Commanders are delighted with the support of the French as they are a leading major power in their own right.
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To #5 Menedemus,
I live pretty close to France and know a number of nearby areas and if there's one thing sure about the French it's that their primary skill is 'yet another disaster pulled from the jaws of victory'. This permeates every level of the work environment from management downwards. As soon as a project starts to succeed they can't desist from destroying it with strikes, internal rivalries and the need to expand their ego's. So be glad they are not in Afghanistan in a big way, an old joke I heard years ago in francophone Belgium was that the French can't understand why the English named a station after a defeat (Waterloo).
I think you're right about the location of any MU base, it will be another useless stitch up along the lines of Strasbourg, with it's only purpose being to bring money into France. It's truly time that a Northern union was launched and the failed EU proclaimed dead and buried. The French can then be the leader of their MU and be economically separate from the Northern Union. Where Germany will choose to fit into this is the only question as they funded the French for years whilst being the largest net contributer. Will they want to fund a MU or join a Norther Union since they are also an Atlantic nation?
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I was interested to see the Israelis and the Palestinians comments on their peace process. I wonder if Spain and Gibraltar will come to some agreement. Both issues are too complex for a "friendship club". And we all have seen the effectiveness of the UN with regard to Zimbabwe-so another talking shop
Also would the UK have a say in this grouping given our presence in Gibraltar and Akritiri ?
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A closer cooperation between the med countries could help southern italy to prosper again
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I think it would be wrong to rubbish something we do not know enough about. But that is a large part of the problem: It seems to be being brought into being without adequate discussion. I am concerned that the British taxpayer will end up paying for something that is worse than worthless like the "EU". The Sarkozy mind certainly seems to have a very sick, dictatorial part to it. He wants to force the Lisbon wotsit on us knowing that we don't want it. Because of that, I am suspicious about everything he does. A German newspaper stated that the whole thing had been discussed amongst "EU" "leaders". That statement worries me. Has it been discussed in the UK parliament? I suspect not.
Are we in the UK now signed up to it without knowing what it really is?
Much could come out of more co-operation in the Med but it has to be co-operation and not integration and that applies to the "EU" as well.
Also it does not need to be about bossy, wasteful centralism.
As regards the Solar power bit:
The sun is shining here in England as I write. It had to happen one day. My strong suspicion is that the idea of solar power stations is fundamentally flawed. The shines all over the place and we need small local arrangements not big projects. The wind blows here a lot too and I suggest we need small wind-powered generators on individual houses rather than big Bad Boys.
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Regarding the ME peace plan: where is Tony Blair?
Wasn't he given assurances from Washington that progress would be made in return for his support invading sovereign Iraq?
Abbas is now so weak, that he'll go to anything. Not one mention of the illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank or East Jerusalem (a Road Map obligation).
Olmert has corruption charges to deal with at home, so he'd say anything also.
You've got to hand it to Sarcozy though; like Tony Blair he is all spin and no substance.
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'The churlish might suggest there was nothing new here. But as one diplomat put it, "freshness is not the point, it's the continuing thaw and it doesn't matter if the mood music is played twice".'
Mark, I think the Middle East and the Palestinians have listened to enough music from 'The West'.
The Middle East needs solutions, not more bellicose anti-Iranian rhetoric and wars.
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''...the failed EU proclaimed dead and buried.''
Now you have quite possibly missed the point there. If you are indeed fervently anti EU in all its guises be it Brussels or the MU, EEC or whatever, then your comment stands, at least in your own mind.
But consider those campaigning for Democracy...
The will of the people has been heard, though they tried very hard to ignore it. I can't see that as a 'failure'; but an opportunity to redress the failures of the past .
Isolation, MU, EU, World Union... what are the choices?
Any Northern Union must have a solid foundation in peace, democracy and equality, or it is but more of the same...
I wonder if they would be so bold as to choose Rome for the Secretariat?
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President Sarkozy loves basking in the lime-light. He should get priorities right.The Mediterranean Union will be just another grouping, another club of nations perhaps with an unwieldly bureaucracy which will serve no useful purpose. Why doesnt President Sarkozy spend his energies making the European union a real success story rather than dissipating his energies on a new project?Cooperation between EU nations should be the priority; new groupings would be superfluous.
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Mr Sarkozy is extremely efficient in taking over other countries' initiatives and making them his own. Italy has been negotiating and discussing this issue for many years, unfortunately not all governments, including the current one, have been in favour of it. I look forward to a successful outcome for this initiative but I am not too sure Israel will ever be committed to it. Israeli feel very superior to, and different from their neighbours and I doubt they will ever accept to be at the same level as others in the new initiative.
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Some contributors here ask about democracy. Good point and one which the Austrian Radio website picks up. It reports that people protesting in favour of freedom in Syria were stopped by the police or arrested.
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There was a famous (French!) satirical cartoon, just after the much-trumpeted Stresa Conference of 1935, which suggested that the most significant benefit of the UK-France-Italy summit meeting would not be a contribution to European peace and security...but a boost to tourism in the Italian Lakes. In similar vein, would anybody care to wager on "Les Conséquences Pratiques de L'Union Mediterranéenne"?
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What on Earth is the UK doing at the table? Last time I checked, our seas were the Channel, the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the Atlantic.
And Brussels is nowhere near the Med.
Never mind Rome or Paris, how about Athens? or Tripoli? or Cairo? or a moveable feast? Anywhere but back to the same-old same-old.
If you want to spread the ideals, spread the spondulix.
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"people protesting in favour of freedom in Syria were stopped by the police or arrested."[#15]
So what? Demonstrators demanding freedom for Tibet were also stopped/arrested by police.
Not in France, mind you, but in Maoist-ruled Nepal.
Still, it's nice to know that there's at least one EU country where a thug responsible for an assassination of a former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri ( a great friend of France) can be received with as much pomp and circumstance as a Libyan dictator who ordered a destruction of a French airliner.
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ArgyllJenny @ #17
The MU needs the British, German and Dutch to buy into it as well as France cannot bankroll it alone.
If the UK did not have it's rebate (which incidentally Tony Blair agreed to reduce during his tenure as Prime Minister!) Britain would be the largest Net Contributor to the EU.
Gordon Brown needed to be there to make sure he remains a hero for President Sarkosy - who described him as such for the UK ratifying the Lisbon Treaty despite the Irish "No" vote. Gordon clearly wants to remain an EU Hero!
It is at such lofty banquets and senior political get-togethers that Gordon gets some approval and - like a puppy-dog - he'll roll over and beg, grovel and turn tricks just to get the applause he doesn't get back in the UK!
Oh, and by-the-way, he'll no doubt sign the UK up to being a fully paid up member of the MU and then get his Labour Backbenchers to commit the UK to bankrolling this MU by promising them peerages and other "I didn't make any promises" promises and the NI Unionists will get their water tax rebates in full. The UK electroate will be the last people to be told what's going on . . . . we'll just pay more tax as usual!
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Notice Brown taxes the POOR here to fund these grandiose 'projects'; while his elite clique seem to be getting richer and richer and with the promise of jobs in the EU and MU on top of their PM/ MP pensions...
No wonder its so popular within the New Labour, Nuevo Elite. Neocon apologists every one of them and hungry for more power...
Beware the Cheshire Cat Mark II
Beware Cameron isolationism
Above all: choose love
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Mark, you had almost convinced me that the Paris conference could be the making of something good (especially in the Middle East) until you listed the Major Projects. Then it all became clear.
Sarkozy is noted for his pro-business stance - French business, that is. Transport, think TGV; Civil Protection, think French army/police (why do you think they were all invited to the parade today?). Education - no hope for France; solar power ditto. But other EU members have to have some share of the cake?
I suppose we should thank Sarko for promoting EU member business opportunities (I think ; )).
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The document sets out six big projects:
Combating pollution: The aim is to clean up the Med by 2020 and make it the cleanest sea in the world. There's a suggestion the whole of the seabed could be declared a protected area, there will be a new body to coordinate coastal protection and a more coherent development of projects like whale sanctuaries.
Transport: One potential aim is developing a modern railway network running from Casablanca to Istanbul, and a high-speed rail network linking Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. They also want to promote "motorways of the sea", which basically means modernising ports and integrating sea traffic with road links.
Civil Protection: The development of more coordination and eventually a common emergency response force to cope with earthquakes and fires, floods and drought.
Solar energy: Developing modern, large-scale solar power stations in North Africa and the Middle East to help the European Union meet its low-carbon targets.
Higher education: Greater contact between universities of North and South and common standards for approved courses.
Business: Spreading the Italian/Spanish Med Agency, which helps small businesses with financing to Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia and eventually to the whole region.
Culture: they should add more projects, such as building New Piramids, for later use, when their time is over, they can lock their servants and slaves toghether with them for the afterlife. Rebulid Colosseum, we will need it to teach the following project.
Democracy: Build concentration camps where people can live happy and contribute more to the society elites. This should remind us our values, dont ask what your country (elites) can do for you, but what you can do for your country (elites).
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Menedemus @ 19:
Doh! Of course!
but wait - Does this mean we've stopped being a poodle for the US and swapped to being a poodle for France?
He wouldn't be that dim, would he? ;-)
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Lap dog to anyone, depending on which way the wind is blowing...
Or so it would seem...
Show you can stand on your own two feet, Minister Brown, and bring the troops home.
Waging war to kill the Euro has played its course, it is time to use co-operation and diplomacy...
Or will Brown be talked into the vanguard of Iran invasionism...?
It is not our war; and we cannot afford to pander to it.
The EU was spineless in standing up for its interest and has paid the price. Brown (Blair) is more spineless still... he fought to kill a currency he would have joined if given half the chance...
It seems silly to be in a lose, lose, lose situation.
Yes to equality.
No to dictatorship of all kinds.
Above all: choose love
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To #12 need4reality
####
''...the failed EU proclaimed dead and buried.''
Now you have quite possibly missed the point there. If you are indeed fervently anti EU in all its guises be it Brussels or the MU, EEC or whatever, then your comment stands, at least in your own mind.
####
Sorry my friend but I'm not anti Europe, but I am anti the political integration being forced on us. I voted for a common market in 1975 and I've lived and work on mainland Europe for 18 years. I like the life style here but I detest the damage that is being done to it by the self centred fools that are the political elite, that was the reason for my post #6. It would seem Sarko is probably assuming that the EU will close down Strasbourg eventually as it's a financial disaster, any guesses that the new MU HQ will be lined up to takeover the buildings. Maybe that's why Germany is so interested to be part of this plan.
ps. this was suggested to me today by a Belgian of Polish, German, Dutch family origins, and I think he read it right.
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It's understandable that the Mare Nostrum can be seen as something far away, even exotic, from London, let alone Washington.
But the truth is this MU is a very pertinent iniciative, at least so it's seen from Barcelona, Marseille, Rome or Athens.
It's also true, like it or not, that the last Sarkozy's summit has been a success in diplomacy.
And the fact Sarkozy seats side by side with Syria's Assad, is as scandolous as Bush standing elbow to elbow with China's Hu Jintao in the APEC meetings.
Double standards? Not for me.
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Mark, though in your article the Med has been categorised into North and South, the proposed projects concern the (north-south) western Mediterranean countries mostly.
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Watching all those French troops on BBC TV all I could think of was that the one thing missing was a war with an enemy they could surrender to.
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I think we may be in trouble...
Choose love.
Good luck...
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Ex Austrian Deputy Prime Minister Erhard Busek (Conservative) wants a referendum over whether Austria stays in the "EU" or not.
It seems that the attitude of the Austrians towards the "EU" is so bad that he thinks they need a referendum even though he wants to stay in it.
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You've got me laughing this morning MarcusAureliusII re your post #28, you obviously have heard Jeremy Clarkson calling them cheese eating surrender monkeys, by the way were you aware that the word surrender comes from the French language (Se Rendre).
On another point regarding the EU and Belgium, it has been reported today that the Belgium PM has tendered the resignation of his government to the King. If accepted it puts the likelihood of a Belgian breakup very probable. Watch this space as this may very well be the first domino in the eventual break-up of the EU as it stands now.
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There seems to be no definitive list of members. I was looking to see if Britain, via Gibralter, is represented. I could find no mention of Gibralter at all. Have they been air-brushed out of the med in deference to the Spanish.
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A few points from 'BBC NEWS - Med Union priorities explained' which appear to have been overlooked.
Firstly: In a xeclaration, the 43 nations - including Isreal and Arab states - pledged to "pursue a mutually and effectively verifiable Middle East Zone free of weapons of mass destruction".
Secondly. Sarkozy has launched, France will not run the MU.
Thirdly: there is a clear distinction between the 'stated goals' and 'practical projects' which mainly involved North Africa and Spain, Italy and Greece. These project are all already underway to a greater are less exstent stemming from the Barcelona Process.
The 'stated goal' mainly affect the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East olthough there is naturally some overlap.
And now acomment or two on specific postings
Karolina001 - your last two points:
Culture - the Piramides of Egypt and the Colosseum in Rome were built over 4,000 years and 2,000 years ago, according to the culture and norms of the time. They still there for us today to wonder at and enjoy. I cannot help wondering of anything built in the last 200 years will be standin for a 1,000 years.
Democracy: Concentration were invented by the British in South Africa an perfected, if I can such a word in this connection, by the USSR and Nazi Germany, All without exception were horribly, terrifying, degrading and distgusting. The only institution which might just qualify for such a description at the present time is on the Island of Cuba. It is called by the almost unbelieveable name of Fort Justice, more generally know by its Spainsh name beginning with G and ending with o.
That neatly brings to MarcuAII. France is both woderful and infuriating at the same time, but if my History is correct, the last War that France Last was the Franco-Prusian War of 1870. What was the last war that the United States last was it not somewhere know as 'Nam'?
Finally we can only hope and pray the a Latin approach to the problems of the Middle East will have a little more success that the Anglo-Saxan efforts which has so comspiculassly faily from the Suez Crisis, which drowned the 'special relationship between G.B. and the US in the waters of the canal to the Iraq and Afganistan. Neither the British at the hight of the Indian Empire could sudue what was then known as the North West Frountier and the full strenght of the Soviet military failed equally.
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Buzet23 #31
Jeremy Clarkson was only repeating what that great American philosopher Bart Simpson called them. A line that good can only come from Hollywood script writers.
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""The new grouping will link 15 mostly Mediterranean countries, including Israel, with a combined population of 279 million, to the EU’s 27 member states and 495 million citizens."""
you see the empire is calculating number of people.. people are just numbers for the elites.
we are like ships... be.bee..beee..
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Post 34 Marcus Aurelius II (by the way would that make you Commodus?)
I'm sorry "Commodus" but your above statement contains a factual error. The phrase " cheese eating surrender monkeys" was not one of Bart Simpsons. In the interests of accuracy it first appeared in the Simpsons episode "'Round Springfield" aired on April 30, 1995 and was spoken by Groundskeeper Willie.
Please if making a statement of fact get it right.
You're all doing very well !!
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I liked the way Marcus Aurelius was portrayed in the movies as the Emperor for the people, when in fact his persecution of Christians gave pallor even to Nero...
Nothing like a bit of revisionism is there...
In fact Christianity was not mentioned at all in that piece of shit movie, or any other faith...
...except for Elysian Fields; but what does that remind you of...?
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need4reality
If they have scenes where they throw Christians to the lions...it might be worth a look-see.
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33. Old-Man-Mike wrote:
"...if my History is correct, the last War that France Last was the Franco-Prusian War of 1870"
So the Vichy surrender to Nazi Germany in 1940 wasn't a loss then?
Nor the rout from the Indochine in the '70s?
Nor the Algerian catastrophe?
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Re 23. ArgyllJenny wrote:
"but wait - Does this mean we've stopped being a poodle for the US and swapped to being a poodle for France?"
So French TGV lines instead of USAF airports?
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1 - The Union for Mediterranee is not the equivalent of the European Union. Its only objective is to deal with the sea's problems and thus does not need to be as much democratic as the UE (fish cannot vote)
2 - All European countries are members because Angela Merkel reyfused that Mediterranean countries do it alone and Sarkozy was forced to change the project. So you can keep your money and your comments.(France is a net contributor to the EU)
3 - The secretariat of the Union for Mediterranee will not be in a European country. This goes in the same direction that the fact that there are two president, one from the south and one from the north.
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''Its only objective is to deal with the sea's problems...''
Don't be silly...
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What I mean is that the Union for Mediterranee is not a political union as strong as the european one (it is not supranational). There won't be a parliement or fiscal or social laws. The Union only concerns actions and relations between the mediterranean people in the domains of transports, environnement, energy, etc..
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This is what it all comes down to: Britain, Germany and the Netherlands get to pay for it.
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But I have to admit, I support anything that waters down the EU. Like the majority of people, I am against further political integration.
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That's not an a_political integration towards you are really looking. I just liked to the Strada conference on uk_fr_it..
It is just seeming like a mike to Tony in Italy but, usuhia always take %5. No matter your opinion, i desire a travel on sea towards what might call it oriental or,.. no offence to on-old-mike but, it just missed a guess _tr. Otherwise AegeanArk won't be happy neither to legally binding entries to Home nations for regulatory x-checkings on what really those are really willing to wave in towards draft walls. Tr.
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