A decade after it began amidst high hopes for Mediterranean development, the Barcelona Process has brought about few solid results, writes Niveen Wahish Hardly a day seems to go by without mention of the fact that this year is the tenth anniversary of the Barcelona Declaration. Two weeks ago the European Commission (EC) presented the European Council and the European Parliament with a comprehensive work programme for the upcoming five years, seeking to reinforce the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership launched by the Barcelona Declaration in 1995. The work programme will form the agenda for discussion on the way forward for the Barcelona Process during the Euro- Mediterranean foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg next May and the special anniversary conference in Barcelona in November. In the programme, the Commission outlined proposals for concrete progress in the areas of economic growth as well as education, human rights and democracy. The work programme also covers social reforms, environment, migration, weapons of mass destruction and counter-terrorism. The document stressed the need to revive the Euro-Med free trade agreement it had targetted for 2010. The programme called for deepening economic integration between the EU and Mediterranean countries through liberalisation of trade in agriculture and services, regulatory convergence and enhanced investment. Furthermore, it stressed that south-south regional integration needs to be accelerated. To reach these objectives, the EC proposed that, with only five years to go, a "road- map" should be agreed upon for the accomplishment of a Free Trade Area by 2010. It said Euro-Med partners should launch regional negotiations on a voluntary basis on the liberalisation of services, and that Euro- Med partners should agree on a road-map for agricultural liberalisation. The Commission will submit guidelines to the Council for starting negotiations in 2005 for both services and agricultural liberalisation. This document comes at a time when the Barcelona Process is coming under heavy criticism and experts are calling for its re- evaluation. At the same time, the EU is launching its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and discussing plans with its concerned neighbors. ENP encompasses a 25-member EU, three candidates, six potential candidates and 16 neighbours. Just last week, the Center for European Studies at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University and the Institute of Research and Development in Egypt organised a two-day conference entitled "The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, ten years after Barcelona." Criticism of the Barcelona Process was plentiful. As Friedrich Kramme-Stremose, resident representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Egypt, put it, the process was planned in better times, leaving the participants now "disillusioned". He said he believes that without peace there will no progress in the region, suggesting that a realistic assessment would be more useful than overly optimistic goals. Figures presented during the conference also showed that the past ten years have not seen much development in the EU Med relationship. Speaking on behalf of Rashid Mohamed Rashid, minister of industry and foreign trade, Sayed El-Bous said that the positive results of the process have been far fewer than anticipated. The income gap between the EU and Mediterranean countries is almost the same as ten years ago, with the income of South Mediterranean countries only 18 per cent that of EU countries. Barbara Stacher of the European Commission delegation in Cairo showed that the Mediterranean represents only seven per cent of EU total imports and eight per cent of its exports. Moreover, Mediterranean countries are not attracting much EU foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2002, only 1.5 per cent of FDI from the EU was in Mediterranean countries. She argued that this could be attributed to the fact that production structures in the Mediterranean countries are similar, with not enough complementarity. Furthermore, local markets are not big enough to allow for economies of scale, and there is not enough cooperation among the Mediterranean countries themselves. But rather than dismiss the process as a failure, Stacher suggests, it should be worked on. She pointed out that the bilateral agreements which will form the structure of the Euro-Med partnership are now almost complete. Association agreements are in force with Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon. In Algeria, the agreement has been signed and is awaiting ratification, while an agreement with Syria has been initiated. Stacher pointed out that the work programme laid out by the EC will be dealing with many of the failures of the past decade, such as insufficient progress in the areas of agriculture and services and rules of origin. El-Bous set out a number of other factors which may have affected the success of the process. He said that the fact that association agreements were negotiated individually has resulted in ratification delays. In addition, he lamented the fact that agricultural products did not receive exceptional privileges. Another criticism of the Barcelona process was made by Jean Yves Moisseron, representative of the Institute of Research for Development in Egypt (IRD), who directed his critique to the EU's financial assistance. He explained that financial assistance to Mediterranean countries is divided between that presented by the European Commission and that presented on a bilateral basis. The latter is five times that presented by the EC. He showed that across the ten years of the Barcelona process, although there has been a drop in bilateral assistance, it was not compensated by increases in EC aid. Moreover, he showed that the actual assistance disbursed was only 40 per cent of the pledged amounts, compared to US assistance, which is 100 per cent disbursed during the year for which it was earmarked. As Ahmed Galal, executive director of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, put it, the "Barcelona process got off on the wrong foot." He said that for economic cooperation to work, it needs to achieve free trade and anchor reform. But the Association agreements have failed in all aspects. He said that rather than fix something that is not working, we should start afresh. That fresh start, Galal argued, could lie in the European Neighborhood Policy. The work programme set out by the EC recognised this. It said the ENP -- "through action plans agreed with partner countries, and the Barcelona Process can bring about a qualitative change in Euro-Med relations." Currently an action plan for Egypt is being negotiated between the EC and the Egyptian government. And it is hoped that it be concluded by the end of the year. The Action Plan is an agenda for work with the EU over a three to five year period. It does not replace, but builds on existing Association or Cooperation Agreements. And they link financial assistance more closely to the achievement of mutually agreed goals. The action plan, as a joint agenda for action, sets out priorities in two broad areas. The first relates to specific actions which reinforce adherence to shared values in areas including democracy and the rule of law, administration of justice and human rights and to certain objectives in the area of foreign and security policy. The second area involves a set of actions that will bring the EU and Egypt closer in a number of priority areas such as economic and social development policy, trade and internal market. Action plans have so far been reached with a handful of the Southern Mediterranean countries, including Tunisia, Morocco, and Israel.
