Date : 14/03/2008
BRUSSELS, March 14 (KUNA) -- European Union leaders concluded their 2-day
summit here this afternoon after approving the establishment of a new project
called "Barcelona Process : Union for the Mediterranean" with the goal to
improve cooperation between the countries in the north and south of the
Mediterranean.
EU foreign policy Javier Solana told a press conference that the union was
a "natural evolution of what was created in 1995."
He was referring to the Barcelona Process which was launched in 1995 to
promote economic, cultural and security cooperation and dialogue between EU
member states and countries around the Mediterranean.
However, the Process has not been successful in achieving its main goals .
French President Nicolas Sarkozy had proposed last year during his election
campaign to form the Mediterranean Union but he had to water it down after the
proposal received a cool reaction from other EU states and complaints from
Germany.
Sarkozy reportedly said last year that it is better to have Turkey in the
Mediterranean Union than in the EU.
But Janez Jansa, Slovenian Prime Minister and President-in-Office of the EU
Council, stressed that the new project was not aimed at excluding Turkey from
EU membership.
"It is not a substitute solution for Turkey. This is not an alternative,"
he told the joint press conference.
On his part, the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso,
said
"we will be delighted to welcome Turkey" in the Mediterranean Union.
The EU leaders in a statement said the Union will include the member states
of the EU and the non-EU Mediterranean coastal states and be an upgrade of the
Barcelona Process.
They invited the European Commission to present to the Council the
necessary
proposals for defining its modalities in view of the summit which will take
place in Paris on 13 July.
Menawhile, there was no mention of the Middle East in the conclusions
adopted by the summit which was focused on economic issues.
Barroso underlined that the leaders of the 27-member EU discussed the
"important issue of economic policy."
Jansa said the summit approved the goals in three key areas, the Lisbon
agenda for job and growth, energy and climate packages.
The EU leaders in their conclusions said work must be vigorously pursued
on further developing the external dimension of the 2007-2009 Energy Policy
for Europe.
The next Strategic Energy Review will be presented in November 2008 and
endorsed
by the spring EU summit in 2009 and which will serve as the basis for the new
Energy Action Plan from 2010 onwards.
The EU leaders welcomed the joint report from EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana and the European Commission on the impact of climate change on
international
security.
They called on the Council of Ministers to submit recommendations on how to
intensify cooperation with third countries and regions regarding the impact of
climate change on international security by end of 2008.
The conclusions noted that the EU is committed to maintaining international
leadership on climate change and energy and to keeping up the momentum of
negotiations on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto
Protocol.
On economy, the summit conclusions said the "fundamentals of the EU economy
remain sound: public deficits have been more than halved since 2005 and public
debt has also declined to just under 60 percent.
Economic growth in the EU has reached 2.9 percent in 2007, but is likely to
be lower this year.
However, the global economic outlook has deteriorated recently as a
result of a slowdown of economic activity in the United States, higher oil and
commodity prices, and ongoing turbulence on the financial markets, said the
conclusions.
On financial stability, the EU leaders said "early warning systems at the
EU and
international level should be enhanced, including the role of the IMF in
oversight
of macro-financial stability." (end)
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