The Union for the Mediterranean's second summit has been postponed for five months, reports Doaa El-Bey Following a meeting on Sunday Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit, and his Spanish and French counterparts Miguel Moratinos and Bernard Kouchner, postponed the Union for the Mediterranean's (UM) second summit till late November in an attempt to ensure it has greater chances for success. All three ministers defended the importance of the summit, arguing that the adjournment by no means lessened the significance of the UM. The decision to delay the meeting was announced by Abul-Gheit at the end of the tripartite press conference held after the foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo. "In order to secure the best opportunity for success and credibility and the widest participation we have decided to postpone the summit for several months," Abul Gheit said. The three ministers said the postponement was made mainly to give indirect Palestinian-Israeli negotiations a chance to make progress. The indirect talks started early this month and have a four-month deadline. "Holding the UM summit at the beginning of the process would have been too early," Kouchner, whose country is co-president of the summit with Egypt, said at the conference. The second UM summit -- a continuation of the first summit held in Paris in July 2008 -- was scheduled for 7 June in Barcelona until the three organising countries -- Spain, France and Egypt -- agreed to postpone it until November. Moratinos, whose country is the president of the EU till the end of June, noted that the delay means the summit will coincide with the 15th anniversary of the launch of the EU partnership known as the Barcelona process, which led to the creation of the UM. The Barcelona process was launched in November 1995. Gamal Bayoumi, secretary-general of the Arab Investors' Union, supports the delay. The summit is likely to be attended by many Arab states, and other non-Arab states, that sympathise with the Palestinian cause, he told Al-Ahram Weekly. While he did not pin any hope on the success of indirect Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, he argues that Israel has to show good will by choosing a more popular person than current Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman to head its delegation otherwise the summit will fail before it starts. The UM brings together the 27-nation EU and 16 partner countries across the southern Mediterranean and the Middle East. It was designed to encourage economic, environmental and other kinds of cooperation. The union's main objectives are to fight pollution in the Mediterranean region, increase solar energy, build highways on land and develop sea routes between member states and cooperate in higher education and research. Its objectives have been impeded by Israeli practices in the Palestinian territories. The delay may have bought some time, says Bayoumi, but unless Palestinian-Israeli negotiations achieve progress on the ground and, more importantly, European states take a more decisive stand towards Israel, nothing is likely to change by November. Palestinian Israeli negotiations and the Middle East peace process formed the main topic during Moratinos's meeting with President Hosni Mubarak who underlined that failure to achieve any progress in the negotiations and the peace process could lead to the escalation of extremism and terrorism in the region. Moratinos said that while many are pessimistic about the outcome of the indirect negotiations, neither the region nor the world has any option but to pursue peace. "We have to exert more effort in order for the negotiations to create an arena suitable for peace and the resolution of final settlement issues," the Spanish minister said.
