EU: Building a positive agenda for the Mediterranean – by Fathallah Sijilmassi

Today there are three main reasons why we need to mobilise all our efforts to ensure a true partnership between both sides of the Mediterranean.

Firstly, it has never been clearer that the challenges facing the Euro-Mediterranean region call for a collective and concerted response. From security threats to our endeavor of living together to the socio-economic challenges, everything now points to the fact that no response can be solely national or confined to a limited geographical area.

At a time when inward-looking attitudes and nationalist sentiments are on the rise, today we must say loudly and clearly that it is by working together that we will succeed, or else we will all fail.

This is the purpose of the roadmap for the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), adopted in January 2017 in Barcelona by the foreign affairs ministers from its 43 Member States. It is also in this spirit that the recent African Union – European Union (AU-EU) summit was held in Abidjan. The EU is also in a process of consolidation in view of the need to act collectively in response to the different challenges.

The stability and security of Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa are obviously closely linked.

Secondly, limiting the Southern Mediterranean to the sole task of managing the “negative agenda”, which must of course be firmly and decisively dealt with (terrorism, irregular migration, radicalism, etc.), would be an enormous injustice for the millions of Mediterranean people who are part of the spirit of openness and modernity and whose daily accomplishments are remarkable.

These women and men in the Southern and Northern Mediterranean are the region’s greatest asset and the finest ambassadors for the shared values that we seek to defend and promote. They should be at the centre of our attention and actions.

Thirdly, we must strengthen our collective political engagement to foster concrete actions.

Today the Mediterranean does not need a romantic vision of the glorious past of our sea, “mare nostrum”, a defeatist, anxiety-inducing conversation about the state of the region, or constant theories about the eternal need to restructure the partnership.

The institutions already exist. We must make greater use of them. The funding already exists. We must ensure that it is used fully and effectively for actions that strengthen the bonds between people and bring tangible results which meet their expectations.

It is on the basis of these three observations that the Union for the Mediterranean gives priority to action on the ground rather than to media headlines.

Under the direction of its two Co-Presidencies – the European Union and Jordan – and the action taken by its Secretariat, the activities of the UfM have enabled it to achieve three major strategic objectives in a challenging context in recent years:

    To become a platform for regional political dialogue;
    To bring together governments and regional cooperation actors (international organisations, NGOs, the private sector, local authorities, etc.); and
    To promote specific regional projects for the benefit of people.

The UfM embodies today the will to have a working framework for strengthening the regional cooperation in the Mediterranean. This framework addresses all the serious and unfortunately growing challenges of our region. It also allows us to do so with a global and balanced perspective that fully recognises the existence of important opportunities and addresses the root causes of the current problems we face, such as the challenges of youth employment, education, health, and justice.

From concrete projects for young people – the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fez, the Mediterranean Initiative for Jobs (Med4Jobs), the Sciences Po’s WOMED women’s leadership project, to name but a few – to sustainable development programmes in the areas of water, the environment, the blue economy, transport, urban development, energy and climate change, the opportunities are real and numerous.

Confidently building a positive agenda for the Mediterranean is critical, and it must be done with strength and conviction.

Read more: Building a positive agenda for the Mediterranean – EURACTIV.com

Spain: Hundreds protest against Catalonia independence vote in Barcelona

Hundreds of people took to the streets of the Catalan capital Barcelona on Saturday, to denounce the upcoming referendum on the region’s separation from Spain. The vote is scheduled to take place on Sunday.

Anti-independence protesters carrying Spanish flags gathered in front of the Catalan government building in Barcelona. At the same time, hundreds rallied in the Spanish capital Madrid, also to protest Sunday’s referendum.

Read more: Hundreds protest against Catalonia independence vote in Barcelona — RT Newsline

Europe’s new “Indispensable Nations”- by Joschka Fischer

After the shock of the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States in 2016, this will be a decisive year for Europe. Upcoming parliamentary elections in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and possibly Italy will decide whether the European Union will hold together, or whether it will disintegrate under the neo-nationalist wave sweeping the West.

Meanwhile, the Brexit negotiations will begin in earnest, providing a glimpse of the future of the EU-UK relationship. And Trump’s inauguration on January 20 may someday be remembered as a watershed moment for Europe.

Judging by Trump’s past statements about Europe and its relationship with the US, the EU should be preparing for some profound shocks. The incoming US president, an exponent of the new nationalism, does not believe in European integration.

Here he has an ally in Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long tried to destabilize the EU by supporting nationalist forces and movements in its member states. If the Trump administration supports or turns a blind eye to those efforts, the EU – sandwiched between Russian trolls and Breitbart News – will have to brace itself for challenging times indeed.

The consequences for the EU will be even more serious if, in addition to setting the US relationship with Russia on a new foundation, Trump continues to call into question America’s security guarantee for Europe. Such a move would be at the expense of NATO, which has institutionalized the US security umbrella for more than six decades. Europeans would suddenly find themselves standing alone against a Russia that has increasingly employed military means to challenge borders, such as in Ukraine, and to reassert its influence – or even hegemony – over Eastern Europe.

We will soon know what comes next for NATO, but much harm has already been done. Security guarantees are not just a matter of military hardware. The guarantor also must project a credible message that it is willing to defend its allies whenever necessary. Thus, such arrangements depend largely on psychology, and on a country’s trustworthiness vis-à-vis friends and foes alike. When that credibility is damaged, there is a growing risk of provocation – and, with it, the threat of escalation into larger crises, or even armed conflict.

Given this risk, the EU should now shore up what it has left with respect to NATO and focus on salvaging its own institutional, economic, and legal integration. But it should also look to its member states to provide a second security option.

The EU itself is based on soft power: it was not designed to guarantee European security, and it is not positioned in its current form to confront a hard-power challenge. This means that it will fall to its two largest and economically strongest countries, France and Germany, to bolster Europe’s defense. Other countries such as Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, and Poland will also have a role to play, but France and Germany are indispensable.

Of course, living in continental Europe means having Russia as a neighbor, and neighborly relations, generally speaking, should be based on peace, cooperation, and mutual respect (especially when one’s neighbor is a nuclear power). But Europeans cannot harbor any illusions about Russia’s intent. The Kremlin approaches foreign policy as a zero-sum game, which means that it will always prioritize military strength and geopolitical power over cooperative security arrangements.

Russia does not view weakness or the lack of a threat from its neighbors as a basis for peace, but rather as an invitation to extend its own sphere of influence. So, power asymmetry in Eastern Europe will lead only to instability. If Europe wants a stable, enduring peace, it first must ensure that it is taken seriously, which is clearly not the case today. Europe can credibly strengthen its security only if France and Germany work together toward the same goal, which they will have an opportunity to do after their elections this year.

EU diplomats used to murmur off the record that Germany and France would never see eye to eye on military and financial issues, owing to their different histories and cultures. But if security conditions take a turn for the worse, that may no longer be the case. Indeed, reaching a compromise on both sides of the Rhine should not be so difficult: France undoubtedly has the experience to lead on defense; and the same goes for Germany on financial matters.

If pursuing this European security option prompts the US to renew its own security guarantee, so much the better. Meanwhile, the EU should also forge a post-Brexit cooperative strategic arrangement with the UK, whose geopolitical position and security interests will remain unchanged.The old EU developed into an economic power because it was protected beneath the US security umbrella. But without this guarantee, it can address its current geopolitical realities only by developing its own capacity to project political and military power. Six decades after the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community, history and current developments are pushing France and Germany to shape Europe’s future once again.

Read more: Europe’s new “Indispensable Nations”