Russian led “South Stream” pipeline project gets new boost

A Russian map for South Stream – as released this spring (above); ENI’s map for South Stream and Nabucco (below)

Sofia, July 25 (BTA) - Parliament ratified Friday [25 July] an agreement between the governments of Bulgaria and Russia on cooperation in the building of a pipeline for the transit of natural gas via Bulgaria called South Stream project. Italian energy group ENI recently released a new map for the project.

The agreement was signed during the 18 January visit here of the then Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Bulgaria's interests are fully defended because the company that will develop and operate the pipeline on its territory will be with 50 per cent participating interest of Bulgaria and 50 per cent participating interest of Russia.

According to the opposition forces in Parliament, the ratification of the agreement runs counter to the European view on how energy monopolies should be overcome. Also, the opposition argues that the economic benefit of the agreement has not been proven.

South Stream is a Russian-Italian project for a gas pipeline to transport Russian natural gas to Italy. The 900 kilometre long offshore section of South Stream is to start from the Beregovaya compressor station at Russia's Black Sea coast, and to run to Bulgaria's Varna. An Italian project map (i.e. ENI’s map) shows that from there the pipeline would follow a Southwest branch through Greece and the Ionian Sea to southern Italy, and a Northwest branch through Romania, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria to northern Italy. The maximum depth of the offshore section will be 2,000 meters.

South Stream is not one pipeline but a system of new pipelines planned to carry 30 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe annually. It will transport not only Russian, but also Central Asian and Kazakh gas. The project worth is estimated at some 10,000 million euro.

South Stream does not call off the project for expansion of the Blue Stream pipeline (a major trans-Black Sea gas pipeline that carries natural gas from Russia to Turkey) to Central Europe via a Turkey-Bulgaria-Serbia-Croatia-Hungary pipeline. Nor does it call off the North Stream project connecting Russia and Germany through Finland and the Baltic Sea.

Story Source: BBC Monitoring European (text of report in English by Bulgarian news agency BTA website)

The sluggish progress of the NABUCCO project

The European Union’s Nabucco pipeline project for transporting Caspian gas to Europe continues to experience false starts and outright setbacks. The impasse seems to justify the Hungarian proposal to hold a summit of the Nabucco consortium countries and the relevant gas producer countries, with the participation of the EU and the United States as main political supporters of this project.

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has suggested holding a summit for resuscitating Nabucco and offers to host the event in Budapest before the end of this year (MTI, July 7). Gyurcsany launched this initiative during his visit in early July to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, which are the main prospective suppliers of gas for the Nabucco project. Top executives of Hungary’s privately owned MOL company went to Baku and Ashgabat at the same time as the prime minister. MOL is a shareholder in the Nabucco consortium, along with Austria’s OMV; the state-owned gas companies of Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania; and Germany’s privately owned RWE.

OMV, the initiator of Nabucco and informal leader of the consortium, has recently inflicted three severe blows on the project. It has agreed to share ownership of Nabucco’s designated terminal, Baumgarten near Vienna, with Russia’s Gazprom and to build gas storage sites for Gazprom in the area. It has also agreed with Gazprom to extend the latter’s South Stream pipeline project, Nabucco’s rival, into Austria. And it suggests sharing the Nabucco pipeline’s capacity (if and when it is built) with Gazprom for “Russian” gas--most likely Central Asian gas monopolized by Gazprom. OMV’s moves could bring Gazprom closer to its goal of killing the Nabucco project or controlling it (see EDM, June 10), writes Vladimir Socor for Eurasia Daily Monitor

Azerbaijan is the designated source of gas for the first phase of the Nabucco pipeline. The country’s government supports the project unwaveringly, at the risk of irritating Moscow and despite defections of other countries from Nabucco to Gazprom’s South Stream project. Azerbaijan’s loyalty to Nabucco should not be taken for granted indefinitely by Washington and Brussels, if they fail to prove that Nabucco is viable for both of its phases. Failure to line up Turkmen or Middle Eastern gas volumes for Nabucco’s second phase would continue to discourage Western private-sector investment for Nabucco’s first phase.

With Azerbaijan’s giant Shah-Deniz field ramping up gas production for its second expansion phase, Azerbaijan and its partners in that consortium (led by BP and Norway’s StatoilHydro) require with increasing urgency an outlet for their production. Moscow is now offering that outlet because the West is not. Visiting Azerbaijan in early July, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller offered to buy up Azerbaijan’s entire surplus of gas at European netback prices, starting in 2009, and re-sell that gas in Europe (www.az.taj, Trend, July 4-7). Azerbaijani gas could in that case reach Europe through Russia. Ironically, Gazprom could pump Azerbaijani gas either through the promised South Stream pipeline (which lacks sufficient Russian gas) or through a reconfigured Nabucco under Russian control (which is Gazprom’s alternative option, if unable to kick-start South Stream).

On July 18 Azerbaijan’s state oil company chairman, Rovnag Abdullayev, announced that a decision is impending about the direction of Azerbaijan’s gas exports from 2009 onward: “We are receiving and assessing proposals from all sides until the end of this year. We shall see. We will vote at a meeting [of the consortium] to launch the second phase of Shah-Deniz after determining the market” (ANS, July 18).

Turkey creates a number of difficulties both for the transport consortium Nabucco and for the gas producing consortium in Azerbaijan. Perhaps the main irritant is the Turkish government’s insistence that it should buy gas from Azerbaijan and re-sell that gas westward, at a profit to Turkey, instead of simply providing transit service for the Azerbaijani gas. Turkey seems to be imitating Gazprom’s methods on this issue. Such a demand contradicts both Nabucco’s concept and the EU policy on energy transit. This issue seems to remain static since February, when the EU’s project coordinator Jozias van Aartsen failed to overcome the deadlock.

On July 15 the government of Turkmenistan announced the start of construction operations on the Caspian Coastal Pipeline project, designed to increase Turkmen gas exports to Russia by 10 to 20 billion cubic meters per year from 2010 onward (Turkmen government press service, Altyn Asyr TV, July 15, 16). On July 16 and 17, President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov on a visit to Romania responded evasively to President Traian Basescu’s rather urgent questions about Turkmen gas for the Nabucco project. The Turkmen side apparently did not to mention this issue in its own statements on the visit (Turkmen government press service, Altyn Asyr TV, July 17, 18).

High-ranking Western visitors to Ashgabat in search of gas supplies for Nabucco, most recently Hungary’s Gyurcsany, invariably hear from Berdimukhamedov that Turkmenistan is ready to sell its gas at the Turkmen border to whichever party has a means of transport available. The answer from the West and Azerbaijan is a Trans-Caspian pipeline from Turkmenistan to Baku and onward to Turkey, where it should link up with Nabucco. A political summit, such as that proposed by Hungary, could help demonstrate Western support, as a prerequisite for putting together a consortium for the Trans-Caspian project and financing the Nabucco pipeline.

Turkey-Russia energy links thaw

Turkey wants to boost cooperation with its top gas supplier Russia, ending a frosty period marked by differences over the Nabucco pipeline to Europe, an official and analysts said – as Reuters reported on July 23, 2008.

Turkey gets most of its gas -- 68 percent of 2008 demand of 38 billion cubic metres (bcm) -- from Russia’s Gazprom under three long-term deals.

NATO-member Turkey and Russia had a decade-long lull in economic relations after Ankara blamed Moscow for selling gas to Ankara at more expensive rates than to other buyers.

They were also at loggerheads after Turkey backed four European countries on the 7.9-billion-euro Nabucco pipeline project planned to carry gas from the Caspian and Iran to Europe from 2013 to lessen Europe’s dependence on Russia.

But a senior Turkish energy ministry source said the two countries were now talking again. “A path has now been opened to doing business on several critical projects,” the source, who asked for anonymity, told Reuters.

Russia had said any pipeline project without its gas was doomed to fail and challenged Nabucco by broaching the South Stream project, which plans a pipeline to Bulgaria and Italy from Russia via the Black Sea. The source said the two countries agreed during Gazprom’s deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev visit to Ankara last week to set up a joint company to run Turkey’s urban gas grids. They also agreed to build an underground gas storage facility in central Turkey and have talks to renew a gas contract expiring in 2011.

“Gazprom’s offer also includes the extension of the Blue Stream pipeline to Israel,” he said, referring to the 1,200 km line that pumps 16 bcm of gas to Ankara through the Black Sea. Sinan Ogan of the Ankara-based think-tank Turksam said Turkey and Russia were now in a new period of cooperation. “The rivalry between South Stream and Nabucco has been to the detriment of both countries. But now Russia may be invited to take part in the Nabucco project during the planned visit by the Russian president to Turkey,” he said. Yurdakul Yiğitgüden, a Turkey-based international energy adviser, said the warmer period in bilateral relations “could end with Russia supplying” 10 to 20 percent of the Nabucco’s gas capacity, which is planned at 30 bcm annually. “Gazprom may apply the same model it has in several European countries. It wants to participate in the downstream business in Turkey,” he said. The energy ministry source said apart from extending Blue Stream gas to Israel, Gazprom will also consider its oil arm Gazprom Neft supplying oil to the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline, proposed by Turkey’s Calik and Italy’s Eni, between Turkey’s Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Also on the table is a project, described by some analysts as fantasy , which envisages carrying fibre optic cables, water, electricity and Russian gas and oil through a multi-purpose pipeline from Turkey to Israel under a 2-5 billion euro deal.

Turkey’s Energy Minister Hilmi Güler said last week Russia, Turkey and Israel would work on this Mediterranean Line project, which could later be extended as far as India. But Yiğitgüden said: “This project simply does not look very reasonable. Who will finance it?”

U.S. may help Ukraine uprade EU gas links

The United States is considering putting its weight behind a project to speed the flow of gas across Ukraine to Europe, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, according to Reuters.

The project could add as much as 19 billion cubic metres of gas flow a year, equal to about two thirds the volume of the planned Nabucco pipline to Europe, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza told Reuters.

"In principle, we`re very interested in doing this, if it`s workable," Bryza said shortly before leaving for Ukrainian capital Kiev to discuss the plan.

"Now we are in the conceptual phase," he added. "We`re just scoping it out... we`ll have to look at feasibility studies and the possibilities of financing."

Ukraine is an important transit state for gas flows to Europe from Russia and Central Asian countries like Turkmenistan.

But regular disputes between Russia and Ukraine have prompted the European Union to seek new sources of energy or supply routes, such as the $12 billion Nabucco project.

Bryza said the work in Ukraine would build on an existing memorandum of understanding between the government there and Germany and Russia.

"A modest investment of around $800 million (could) bypass a bottleneck in the Ukrainian gas transit network into Slovakia," said Bryza.

"From our perspective, we`d want to pursue something like that only if we could make sure international standards of transparency would govern the project," he added. "We could build it from the ground up and therefore build in these transparency initiatives."

Bryza said the project should not be dependent on the survival of any single government.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, swept to power by the 2004 "Orange Revolution", is keen to move closer to the EU and out of the shadow of Russia, but his administration has been beset by quarrels.

"What really does matter is whether the requisite political will will be there to break this really negative cycle of lack of transparency and corruption in the energy sector," said Bryza.

EU Warns Romania and Cuts Bulgarian Aid on Corruption

Romania's President Traian Basescu and the president of the Magistrates’ Superior Council (CSM) Lidia Barbulescu

The European Union warned Romania to clean up its justice system and cut financial aid to Bulgaria and, leveling unprecedented criticisms at the bloc's newest countries for failing to tackle corruption.

The EU suspended about 500 million euros ($790 million) in subsidies to Bulgaria, accusing it of failure to crack down on graft and organized crime. Romania was let off with a warning to overhaul its judiciary.

“Tangible results need to be achieved in investigating, prosecuting and judging cases of high-level corruption and organized crime,” European Commission President Jose Barroso said in a statement in Brussels, as cited by Bloomberg on July 23.

The two nations joined the EU in 2007, extending the world's biggest trade bloc to the Black Sea. Both rely on EU funds to modernize roads, railways, ports, farms and public services. Romania, the bigger of the two, stands to receive 32 billion euros through 2013, while Bulgaria could gain 11 billion euros.

The freezing of Bulgaria’s funds was “overdue,” Elmar Brok, a German Christian Democrat in the European Parliament, said in a statement. “It is the only way to ensure the credibility of the EU enlargement process.”

Bulgaria and Romania rank as the bloc's most corruption-plagued countries, according to Transparency International. EU warnings have led them to undertake probes of cabinet ministers, businessmen and lawmakers. Neither has managed to convict a senior politician.

“The report points out a series of positive changes -- progress that shows Romania is going down the right road,” Romanian Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said in an e-mail sent from his office. “We are determined to continue with a zero-tolerance policy toward those who use public positions to enrich themselves. I know a difficult road awaits us.”

In Romania, lawmakers still have the power to veto investigations of their colleagues. Prosecutors have accused 10 current and former ministers of corruption, including ex-Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and Labor Minister Paul Pacuraru but MP’s are still delaying a decision that would enable prosecutors to bring in a court of law the alleged corrupt top politicians.

Today, July 24, Romanian President Traian Basescu attended the country’s Magistrates’ Superior Council meeting. Mr. Basescu made no press statement following the reunion to which the Minister of Justice Catalin Predoiu and Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi were also present.

The president of the Magistrates’ Superior Council (CSM) Lidia Barbulescu said on Thursday that the European Commission’s report published on Wednesday regarding the progress of Romanian justice reform and fight against corruption was "balanced, critical and constructive". She said as CSM talks concluded today that several measures have been taken today to improve issues signaled in the EC report.

Barbulescu said that at the next session of the CSM in September a more precise analysis of the technical contents of the report would be made to establish clear moves that have to be taken.

When asked on what President Traian Basescu specifically criticized as regarding the CSM performance during talks with Council members, Barbulescu said that Mr. Basescu showed disappointment about the same issues included in the EC report.

Romania, Turkmenistan seeking ’strong’ development of bilateral relations

Romania and Turkmenistan seek the ''strong'' development of bilateral relations, not only on political, but also on economic ground, is the conclusion of the talks held on Wednesday at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace by the two chiefs of states, Traian Basescu and Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, on the occasion of the latter's official visit to Romania.

'We decided to strongly develop our bilateral relations, not only at political, but also at economic level. The development of economic ties does not envisage only the energy area, but all economic activities that can be developed under a Romania-Turkmenistan partnership. To this aim, we decided to establish an intergovernmental commission that should analyze all possibilities of bilateral cooperation,' President Traian Basescu said at the end of the meeting.

According to the Romanian President, the documents signed on the occasion of the visit of his Turkmen counterpart are 'highly important' and are meant to provide mutual guarantees for investments, the development of economic relations, cooperation in the sector of education and between the two Foreign Ministries. The subject of the European Nabucco pipeline project was also tackled during talks.

In turn, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov said that the two countries have common priorities. ''We succeeded in setting solid grounds for the development of our bilateral relations. We don't start from scratch, this relation already has a tradition, as Romania counts to the states that recognized 17 years ago the independence of Turkmenistan, and it is highly important for us to find that we have a great potential for the development of our relations,' said Berdimukhamedov. He noted that commercial exchanges witnessed a strong growth the year before and are further following an upward trend.

Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov said that another way whereby Romania can support Turkmenistan's approaches to develop relations with European states is by actions undertaken within the UN, NATO and EU.

'The sets of documents signed today, especially those related to economy, where our interests are highest, stand witness to the development of cooperation development. Turkmenistan is extremely rich in resources and is ready to cooperate with Romania in this area. Turkmenistan is interested in developing top-technologies and equipment for the processing of these resources. Here too we find that we have common priorities and our cooperation also targets other activities in agriculture, transportation and constructions,' said the Turkmen President.

Berdimukhamedov mentioned that his country offers Romanian companies the possibility to participate in projects that are highly important for Turkmenistan, like the development of the Caspian Sea draft agreement.

''We discussed the construction of plant, infrastructure, in particular rail on the north-south, east-west direction, linking Turkmenistan to Europe and the Persian Gulf. We also discussed cooperation in education. Hundreds of Turkmen students are currently studying all over the world and we hope for Romanian prestigious academic institutions to also count to the institutes providing training to our students,' said Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov.

He thanked his Romanian counterpart for the positive outcomes of the meeting and invited Traian Basescu to Turkmenistan.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov is paying a two-day visit to Romania at the invitation of President Traian Basescu.

On this occasion, the sides signed the agreement between the governments of Romania and Turkmenistan on economic cooperation, the protocol between the two governments to the agreement on the mutual promotion and protection of investments signed in Bucharest on November 16, 1994, the Convention between the Government of Romania and the Government of Turkmenistan to prevent double taxation and tax evasion related to income and capital taxes, the cooperation program in the line of education to be jointly implemented by the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research and Youth and Turkmenistan's Ministry of Education between 2008-2012, and the Memorandum of understanding between the Romanian and the Turkmen Foreign Ministries.

Other entries on the agenda of the Turkmen President are meetings with Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and Senate president Nicolae Vacaroiu, followed by a trip to Ploiesti, where he will meet the leadership of the local Oil and Gas University.

***

On December 20, 1991, Romania acknowledged the statehood of Turkmenistan; the two states established diplomatic relations on July 20, 1992.

On December 2007, bilateral exchanges stood at an aggregate amount of 148.38 million dollars, of which exports accounted for 14.36 million dollars and imports for 134.02 million dollars.

Romania imports from Turkmenistan mineral products and cotton, and exports machines, electric equipment, devices, metals.

EU Chief Confident Italy to Respect Rules on Roma (Gypsy) Ethnics

The census is part of a crackdown by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi`s government on crime.

The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said on Tuesday he was confident Italy's census of Roma people (Gypsies), criticised by the European Parliament and human rights groups as discriminatory, would respect EU rules—Reuters reports.

The Rome government has come under attack for its plan to conduct a census, with fingerprinting if necessary, of all people living in camps, including children.

The census is part of a crackdown by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government on crime.

Mr. Barroso, at a news conference with Berlusconi in Rome, said there was good cooperation between Italy and the EU executive, which is assessing whether the plan is compatible with EU anti-discrimination rules.

"I really believe ... that a solution will be found that will respect those principles that are essential for Europe and for Italy, while responding at the same time to the concerns that exist here in Italy regarding security but also the integration of immigrants," Barroso said.

EU lawmakers last week asked Italy to refrain from collecting fingerprints in nomads' camps, saying this would be a discriminatory policy aimed at a single ethnic group and would treat Roma and their children like criminals.

Similar concerns, dismissed by the Italian government, have been expressed by human rights groups and Catholic charities.

There are around 140,000 Roma people in Italy. About half come from abroad, mostly from eastern European countries such as Romania. Fifty-five percent of those living in camps are minors.

The census was ordered by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a member of the anti-immigration Northern League. It initially involved fingerprinting all those living in camps in Naples, Rome and Milan, including children.

However, the government seems to have partly backtracked. Maroni said last week fingerprints would only be taken when no other means of identification was possible.

Italy is due to report back to the EU on the census, which has started in Naples and is due to begin in Rome this week, at the end of July.

A European Commission source said Barroso's message to Berlusconi in private would be that Brussels wanted "a nuts and bolts explanation of what is going on" in the treatment of the Roma.

Barroso would ask for a detailed report from Italy on why the measures were being taken, how many Roma did not have proper identity papers and what individual cases justified incarceration, the source said.

Leaders mass for parade in Paris

Leaders from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa have been attending France's Bastille Day military parade.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was the guest of honour, while two units of UN peacekeepers were leading the traditional march.

But President Nicolas Sarkozy aroused controversy by inviting President Bashar Assad of Syria, a country accused of supporting terrorism.

Mr Sarkozy was also due to give a top award to ex-hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

Ms Betancourt, who was rescued from Colombian rebels earlier this month, was to receive the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, one of France's top civilian awards.

Ms Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, has strong links with France, having grown up and raised her children there.

The parade followed a weekend in which President Sarkozy launched the Union for the Mediterranean, a new international body with 43 member nations aimed at increasing co-operation between the EU and African and Middle Eastern countries bordering the Mediterranean.

It is meant to tackle regional issues such as immigration and pollution, but will also seek to help end unrest in the Middle East.

Many of the leaders who attended that summit on Sunday stayed on for the Bastille Day celebrations.

They included Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. Romania’s President Traian Basescu also attended the French National fête. A Romanian jet took part at the military parade.

But Mr Assad's presence angered a French veterans' group, which accuses Syria of being behind a 1983 bomb attack on a Beirut building that killed 58 French soldiers.

"We feel uneasy" about French soldiers filing past the Syrian leader, said Jean-Luc Hemar, head of the Association of Veterans from Camp Idron in central France.

The bombing "will cast a shadow over the 14th of July", he said.

Opposition Socialist leader Francois Hollande said the national day - which recollects the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 at the start of the French Revolution - was being "tainted by controversy".

However, the government said its critics had made "a historical mistake", and that Hezbollah guerrillas, and not Syria, were behind the 1983 Drakkar bombing.

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.