King Felipe VI inaugurates the 5th Union for the Mediterranean Forum
The 5th Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean has started today, a conference that is being held since it has been 25 years since the first Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Foreign Affairs was held, which became known as the Barcelona Process. At the end of November 1995, Barcelona hosted this first conference which brought together 15 European Union member countries together with 12 other Mediterranean countries. The aim was none other than to generate a new framework for dialogue and cooperation around the Mare Nostrum.
This framework has been consolidated over time, thanks to the development of the European Southern Neighbourhood Policy - from which Morocco was the main beneficiary - and the subsequent relaunch of the Barcelona Process with the creation, on the French initiative, of the Union for the Mediterranean. This UfM was gradually institutionalised with the establishment of a Secretariat located in the city of Barcelona. The Union for the Mediterranean currently includes 42 countries, including all the member countries of the European Union.
The opening session that took place today, with certain exceptions due to the restrictions caused by the coronavirus, was attended by Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union, the Minister of Foreign Affairs González Laya, the Egyptian Nasser Kamel, current Secretary General of the UfM, and the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi, who is the current co-president of the UfM with the EU. Due to the quarantine to which King Felipe VI is facing, his intervention to initiate the 5th UfM Forum has been by telematic means.
The challenges facing this forum are even more complex than those identified 25 years ago. Josep Borrell referred to the gap between the north and south of the Mediterranean and the increasing imbalance. He has also drawn attention to the instability of Syria and Libya. To these two countries the Jordanian minister added the situation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the need to make progress in serious negotiations in which there should be no room for colonisation. Both Borrell, Safadi and Nasser Kamel stressed the potential of this forum and the human capital the region has to address some of the problems that arise, and which the COVID-19 has exacerbated.
The King's speech sought to highlight the "spirit of concord" with which this process was begun a quarter of a century ago, and which now needs a "renewal of its political strategy" in which cooperation must play a predominant role. The rest of the participants, like the King, have been intervening telematically, addressing other issues of interest and urgency such as the migratory crisis, which is once again affecting Spain with concern.
The region is facing great challenges in a health framework that is not easy to achieve, and the economic recession in many countries also makes it difficult to increase investment to adjust to the imbalance to which they have alluded. And all this despite the fact that the European Union has already allocated 2.3 billion in aid to the countries of the southern Mediterranean to meet the most urgent needs. As Olivér Várhelyi, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, has pointed out, it is necessary to strengthen the neighbourhood strategy and bilateral and regional cooperation, something that this new Commission has set itself as an objective.