EU will revamp its aid to Arab World to Focus on Environment and Energy

As an indicator of the EU's disappointment with the slow rate of economic integration and reform resulting from its current aid programme to MENA countries, a new aid plan will be developed that will focus on environment and energy.

In a press release by the EU published by the Associated Press last week, the Union proposed a revamp of its multibillion-euro aid program toArab countries and Israel, saying the current project has failed to meet its goals.

The EU called for a «stronger partnership» between the 27-nation EU and 10 Mediterranean nations. EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said EU aid so far has produced neither economic integration on the Mediterranean's eastern and southern rims nor good governance and democratic and political reforms. Consequently, growth and investmentin Arab nations have remained insufficient, she added.
In a report to EU governments, she listed environmental protection, transport and energy as priority sectors for European assistance, saying these are most likely to trigger regional integration and international funding.
It also suggested EU aid must focus on building up civil protection in Arab neighbors.
The report stressed that a Euro-Mediterranean free trade zone by 2010 _ the EU's original and highly ambitious aim _ remains valid and necessary today.
«Further and faster reforms are needed if the EU's Mediterranean partners are to reap the potential benefits of globalization and free trade with the EU,» Ferrero-Waldner said in her report.
Critics say the Euro-Mediterranean aid program has not led to economic modernization and growth in Arab countries. Nor has it increased EU investments there or made those countries more democratic. According to the news published by the AP the lack of economic growth is seen to feed terrorism, authoritarian rule and illegal immigration.
Ferrero-Waldner proposed renaming the Euro-Mediterranean aid program «Union for the Mediterranean,» giving it a permanent secretariat and oversight panel and having EU-Mediterranean summits every two years to make EU assistance more visible to the Arab public.

The report responds to comments by French President Nicolas Sarkozy who, in his 2007 election campaign, cautioned that Europe must not forsake its neighbors across the Mediterranean.
Sarkozy's plan for a «Mediterranean Union» stoked distrust in Germany and other nations that saw a bid to widen French influence in the Mideast on the back of EU's biggest foreign aid program.
Ferrero-Waldner's «Union for the Mediterranean» would be led by a rotating co-presidency of two nations _ one from the EU, one from the Mediterranean neighbors. The EU leaders will debate this at a mid-June summit in Brussels. France plans to host the first EU-Mediterranean summit in Paris July 13.