Sarkozy's Mediterranean union closer to reality

Since the EU summit last month hosted by Slovenia, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's idea on the Mediterranean has a better chance of becoming a reality after getting the nod from EU heads of government.

It is amazing what the art of diplomacy can do. In this case a change of name and a game of who and what is in, and who and what is out, was enough to have the matter included in the work programme of the European Commission and on the agenda of the first summit of the French presidency in June.

Mr Sarkozy did not agree that tagging the Union to the Barcelona process had weakened or changed it much.

When Mr Sarkozy, soon after taking office, asked former socialist prime minister Michel Rocard to develop the idea further, according to media reports he declined because he thought the idea would duplicate existing initiatives on the Mediterranean.

This is not surprising considering the other initiatives Malta is already involved with, particularly the Parliament of the Mediterranean (PAM). Therefore the question of duplication needs to be raised. I wrote before that, "Every Mediterranean initiative for dialogue... has its own specific emphasis although generally, they may deal with the same subjects." And I suggested that: "Clearly the assembly (PAM) and the Union are not mutually exclusive and in fact may supplement each other rather well, particularly in areas considered by some to be dragging the Barcelona process down.

It is therefore important that a mechanism be established as early as possible to ensure that duplication will be avoided between PAM and the Union and the other Mediterranean initiatives."

Although time is short before the Paris summit, the European Commission may want to consider a meeting of the minds of all concerned, before considering the modalities for the implementation of the French proposal, thereby ensuring that duplication and overlapping with already existing organisations dealing with the Mediterranean are avoided.

PAM has already started implementing its work programme approved by its plenary session last November. If one considers this work programme, it is clear that the focus of the Union of the Mediterranean, namely the energy supply, pollution, security, exchange of education programmes and the creation of a scientific community, is rather similar to PAM.

The striking difference between the two, though not the only significant one, is that the Union is a meeting of governments while PAM is a meeting of parliaments.

Apart from that, parliaments, at least in the democratic world, are usually more representative of the people than governments are; the trend in organisations is to include a parliamentary component.

We do not have to look far for examples. These would include the European Parliament, the parliamentary assemblies of OSCE and Nato, and the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe among others.

Some of the principal international organisations like the United Nations, for example, have been criticised for not having a parliamentary element.

As recently as June 2005, the European Parliament called for "...the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) within the UN system, which would increase the democratic profile and internal democratic process of the organisation and allow world civil society to be directly associated in the decision making process".

This therefore could be another reason for the EU to heed its own parliament and to ensure that the matter of the parliamentary component of the Union be discussed and considered at this stage and not after the Union is formed. Indeed, the president of the European Parliament was quick to point out that MEPs also wanted to be involved in the Union and expressed surprise that the Euro-Mediterranean Assembly of the Barcelona process had so far been ignored.

Should it be concluded that in line with other European organisations the Union should also have a parliamentary component, as is the case with the Barcelona process, then PAM, which already exists and is functioning, could become the parliamentary assembly of the Union and the question of the headquarters of the Union could be a foregone conclusion.

Mr Bartolo is a former ambassador to the UN and WTO.