A Voice for Europe in the Mediterranean - Challenges and Opportunities

A Voice for Europe in the Mediterranean

Challenges and Opportunities

Michael Frendo

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta and currently Chairman of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the Maltese Parliament. Almost uniquely in Europe, Michael Frendo has been a member of the European Conven­tion on the Future of Europe and a signatory to its Draft Constitutional Treaty, as well as a signatory to the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe and to the Treaty of Lisbon which superceded it and which comes into force on the 1st of De­cember 2009.

Europe’s engagement in the Mediterranean is central to its foreign and security pol­icy. A prosperous, democratic, stable and secure Mediterranean region is in the best interests of the EU. Europe’s voice would be strengthened if, within the outer ring represented by the Barcelona Process and the Union for the Mediterranean, one could fashion existing Mediterranean fora such as 5+5, FOROMED, and the Par­liamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean into an architecture of concentric circles, with the Mediterranean European countries representing a vanguard group. The Mediterranean Member States of the European Union, the Olive Group, repre­sent the best conduit of European Policy towards its southern neighbours. The EU needs to address effectively Mediterranean issues: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; il­legal immigration; fundamentalism, terrorism and intolerance; expansion towards the Western Balkans. The voice of Europe in the Mediterranean must be “an ex­treme voice for moderation” engaging with the Arab World in the European Union-League of Arab States Ministerial Meeting first instituted in Malta in February 2008. The EU should maximise on its resources by utilising its Mediterranean Mem­ber States as positive delivery agents for European diplomacy and public goods in the region that they know best.