Romania’s President Traian Basescu attended the Union for the Mediterranean summit

Romania's President Traian Basescu (C) is greeted by France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and Egypt's President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak (R) as he arrives at the EU-Mediterranean summit in Paris, July 13, 2008. Some 43 heads of state and government are attending the French-inspired summit intended to revitalize cooperation between the European Union and Mediterranean countries. (REUTER photo)

Reconciliation of the Mediterranean region, economic development, food and energy crises, but also migration from northern Africa were the main topics on the agenda of the summit in Paris. Romania was represented by President Basescu and FM Lazar Comanescu.

The companies from Mediterranean countries would come back to Romania due to the political framework guaranteed by the ties of EU with the states in the region, President Traian Basescu said yesterday before leaving for Paris to attend the summit for the Mediterranean region.

Basescu explained that talks would focus on Mediterranean states’ economic development, food and energy crises and migration from northern Africa to EU countries. The main objective of the summit, under French patronage, was the official launch of the initiative “Barcelona Process: a Union for the Mediterranean,” a project aimed at revitalizing efforts to make the Mediterranean a region of peace, democracy, cooperation and prosperity.

The summit was attended by leaders from over 40 countries. Besides the 27 EU members, the meeting brought together leaders of Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Israel, the Palestinian authority, Jordan, Mauritania, Albania and others. President Basescu said Romania would support Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Monaco to obtain membership of the Barcelona Process.

High on the agenda was food and energy crises, but also issues related to fighting extremism and terrorism in the area, in the context of Romania’s involvement in NATO exercises in the region, said Basescu. Other issues that were discussed included security of transports and the fight against illegal immigration, but also civil protection for Mediterranean states and assistance the EU can give these states in case of natural disasters. Basescu added that Romania would transfer diplomatic experience to the EU in efforts to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “The presence of Israel and the Palestinian authority in the process is of great interest for us. (…) The process offers us the possibility of bringing the experience of Romanian diplomacy in the region, in a much stronger shape, this time by transferring experience in the European Union, which will be an extremely active factor in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said. Basescu will remain in Paris today as well, as he was invited by his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, to attend France National Day events.

The highlight of yesterday’s summit was the presence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, together with 40 other leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the first time Israeli and Syrian leaders were in the same room, according to Reuters. The two countries recently began indirect peace talks with Turkish mediation. The diplomatic breakthrough enabled Assad to emerge from isolation in the West three years after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which many believe was orchestrated from Damascus.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said it was time the region put years of strife behind it and forge new ties with European Union states on the pressing issues of the day.

“The project is quite simply about taking in hand the big challenges of the century ahead,” Kouchner told a pre-summit meeting of foreign ministers from all the states involved.

“Climate change, worsening of the environment, access to water and energy, migration, dialogue between civilizations, the Mediterranean is at the heart of all the issues on which our future depends,” he added.

But the Paris summit, a diplomatic success for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the EU’s rotating presidency, may be richer in symbolism than substance, at least to start with. France and Egypt will be the first countries to co-chair the new body, but details such as the location and powers of its secretariat remain to be resolved, and the Middle East conflicts that bedevilled past EU-Mediterranean cooperation loom large. Sarkozy was able to boast that all the leaders of the southern Mediterranean region except Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi would be present, whereas only one attended a 2005 Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona. The French leader booked a first success on Saturday when he hosted talks between Assad and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, who agreed to normalise relations between Damascus and Beirut for the first time since independence in 1943. During a joint press conference with the two leaders, Sarkozy announced that both countries agreed to open diplomatic missions in each other’s capital cities.