Our New Partners to the South - Oh didn't you know?

Our New Partners to the South - Oh didn't you know?

You may well have missed it, it certainly was not announced with any great fanfare, but on the 1st of January 2010 the Euro-Mediterranean partnership came into effect. Formerly known as the Barcelona Accord and re-launched in 2008 as the Union for the Mediterranean. This Union includes the existing members of the EU together with 16 other countries, many of which are located quite a way South and East of the Mediterranean.

These include bastions of democracy such as Syria. Libya, the "occupied" Palestinian territory and Mauritania, a country which famously did not get round to abolishing slavery until 1981, and of course, our old friend Turkey with its 70 million Muslim citizens desperate to gain access to the West.

The Partnership sells itself as addressing issues such as:

* the "de-pollution" of the Mediterranean Sea;
* the establishment of maritime and land highways;
* civil protection initiatives to combat natural and man-made disasters;

However, it also talks of “business initiatives” and what it suspiciously terms “cultural exchange”, leaving one to wonder what degree of access to EU nations will be offered to our 16 new “partners”, and their large populations.

Another interesting aspect to the partnership is that it will feature a “rotating co-presidency” with one EU president and one president representing the Mediterranean partners. This means the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Albania, the "mad dog of Libya and, of course, Hamas will all get to play at president of an organisation we are part of, cool huh?

I am afraid that I find this all very suspicious. As we all know, our leaders have for some while been anxious to extend entry to the European Union well beyond the confines of the European continent, but have been restrained largely by the reluctance of their electorates. This partnership has come into effect almost in secrecy, certainly very few amongst the European electorate know anything about it, and one has to ask, why has it been kept so low key? http://eeas.europa.eu/euromed/index_en.htm

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