Meda-comp http://www.meda-comp.net Competition law matters for the Mediterranean countries Wed, 16 May 2012 19:44:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 The European Commission expresses its Support to the UfM http://www.meda-comp.net/the-european-commission-expresses-its-support-to-the-ufm/ http://www.meda-comp.net/the-european-commission-expresses-its-support-to-the-ufm/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:34:31 +0000 barbara_schwarz http://www.meda-comp.net/?p=623 “More for more” – This is the principle for the relations between the European Union and Northern Africa, as explained today in Barcelona the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Füle. The more reforms a country takes, the more support would give the European Union, said the commissioner, who stressed that the European foreign policy is now better shaped to support the reforms started in the Maghreb countries last year. The role of the European institutions “is not to tell the people what they have to do”, Füle said, “but to help to make it possible that the revolution is not stolen”. It’s upon the time, Füle stressed, that the power in Egyot changes from the military to civil authorities. 

Füle participated Thursday in a reception and a press briefing together with the new secretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the Moroccan Fathallah Sijilmassi. The European Commission support the Union for the Mediterranean, stressed the commissioner: “The EU will continue its financial support and increase its technical cooperation with the secretariat of the UfM”, he said, and added that the EU will “actively support the development of projects with both economic and political significance”. 

The reception in Barcelona’s Pedralbes Palace, the UfM’s headquarters, was Sijilmassi’s first public event since he took office one week ago.

The European Commissioner stressed the importance that the European institutions give to the Euro-Mediterranean relations, and the support given to the transitions in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt after their political changes. “Europe must not be frightened by the electoral success of political actors who are inspired by Islam”, stressed Füle referring to the new moderate islamistic formations.

The commissioner indicated that institutions and European diplomacy should continue as a “point of contact” between civil society in Arab countries and the respective governments.

He acknowledged that the European institutions were wrong to support dictatorships for the sake of stability. But the way to democracy can be very long, he remarked.

The Euro-Mediterranean relations should be based on three principles: to promote economic relations, improve mobility of people and economic integration, the three Ms, ‘money, mobility and markets’. Füle announced a new additional programme for the southern neighbours called SPRING, with a total budget of 500 million Euro until 2013.

He indicated that the EU must ensure that these states consolidates “democratic values, human rights, women’s rights, freedom of expression and religious tolerance” and that European institutions should have a watching role.

For the UfM, Sijilmassi indicated that the principles that should guide this organization must be “cooperation, peace and prosperity in the region” and tangible results. “We must give new impetus to the Mediterranean relations,” assured Sijilmassi.

Euro-Mediterranean relations, formally launched in 1995 with the ‘Barcelona Process’, received an additional impetus in 2008 with the UfM, which counts with 43 member countries on both sides of the Mediterranean.

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