A vision of utopia for the 21st century: a union between Europe and the South and East Mediterranean
- Jean-Louis Guigou

A multi-polar world is taking shape around regional blocs. NAFTA and MERCOSUR in the Americas and ASEAN+3 in Asia are the forerunners of the great “hemisphere regions” that will make up the world of tomorrow. These great North-South economic powerhouses are spearheading collaboration, mutual interest and solidarity in key areas such as water, energy, agriculture, the environment, tourism, and migration. They offer the ideal framework for implementing regional regulation. In this brave new world of integrated North-South regions, the European Union is half way there: it has built an economic bloc in the North. The next phase will involve regional integration with the South and East of the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean region clearly offers Europe immense potential for sustainable and mutually beneficial growth. Moreover, the North and South of the Mediterranean share a common destiny: the South's integration with a strong Europe will lead both North and South to fulfilling that common destiny. Europe needs the youthful populations and emerging market growth potential that can be found in the South. The South and East Mediterranean countries need the expertise and support o...

A multi-polar world is taking shape around regional blocs. NAFTA and MERCOSUR in the Americas and ASEAN+3 in Asia are the forerunners of the great “hemisphere regions” that will make up the world of tomorrow. These great North-South economic powerhouses are spearheading collaboration, mutual interest and solidarity in key areas such as water, energy, agriculture, the environment, tourism, and migration. They offer the ideal framework for implementing regional regulation. In this brave new world of integrated North-South regions, the European Union is half way there: it has built an economic bloc in the North. The next phase will involve regional integration with the South and East of the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean region clearly offers Europe immense potential for sustainable and mutually beneficial growth. Moreover, the North and South of the Mediterranean share a common destiny: the South's integration with a strong Europe will lead both North and South to fulfilling that common destiny. Europe needs the youthful populations and emerging market growth potential that can be found in the South. The South and East Mediterranean countries need the expertise and support of Europe to withstand the shockwaves of global economic integration and to meet the challenges of job creation and political and societal reforms imposed by the inexorable march of modernity. Far from being rivals, the North and South of the Mediterranean are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. The southern countries can and must become the tiger economies of Europe.
And it is not a matter of choice, either for Europe or the Southern or Eastern Mediterranean. If the region as a whole fails to integrate, it will inevitably fall even further behind the Americas and East Asia.
We can either unite or become marginalized. With 900 million Euro-Mediterranean citizens, only if we unite will the region have any clout in tomorrow's world. On 13 July 2008, the region's heads of State and government proposed the creation of a Union for the Mediterranean between Europe and the South and East Mediterranean countries. This farsighted initiative lays the political groundwork for the emergence of a North-South Mediterranean region, one with the potential to become the strategic fulcrum of a partnership between the EU and the African Union. This Europe-Africa grand alliance could be made into the great geopolitical project for the 21st century. Peace, dialogue between cultures, and the future of the southern countries and Europe hinge on this. The political framework is in place in the form of the Union for the Mediterranean, but the real work remains to be done. Economic integration will play an essential role, as it did in the construction of Europe: it brings populations closer together, and helps overcome political differences. But the Union for the Mediterranean must strive to be more than just a free trade area: it must put in place mature, region-wide policies on water, energy, mobility, agriculture, food production, etc.

This will mean creating a common set of instruments. It will mean harmonizing technical and trade standards, creating an integrated financial market, and establishing a regional arbitration court and sector- specific Mediterranean agencies to oversee North-South collaboration and nurture joint projects. The Union for the Mediterranean will become a reality when there is transfer of sovereignty, and when the region's interests transcend the individual interests of its constituent nations. Now is the time for corporations from North and South, trans-Mediterranean professional networks and local and regional authorities to start building the foundations of regional integration. Now is the time for them to start formulating recommendations and identifying priorities for the attention of government. Theirs is the task of giving flesh and blood to the political framework provided by the Union for the Mediterranean. This is the deep-seated conviction and raison d'être of IPEMED, the Mediterranean economic foresight institute. IPEMED stands at the interface between corporations from North and South of the Mediterranean and the region's cities, regions and States, European and Euro-Mediterranean bodies and institutions, and experts from North and South. IPEMED's aim is to nurture a new approach to North-South relations and to formulate proposals that will benefit the populations of the Mediterranean countries in real and tangible ways.
Our task is an urgent one: we need to work on building complementarities between Europe and the South and East Mediterranean over the coming years if we want to give the Euro- Mediterranean region, and one day, the Euro-African region, the clout and respect they will need in a multi-polar 21st century. You do not foresee the future: the future is something you prepare, and build, together.

Three convictions

In a world of increasing regionalization, the Mediterranean countries should themselves construct a regional vision. The United States, China and Japan have elaborated strategic visions based on economic and political alliances with their respective regional neighbours (ALENA, ASEAN, +3). Large regional groupings between North and South are being created. On this basis, Europe and its southern neighbours should find solutions in proximity, interdependence and solidarity for the creation of an alliance that can impose itself in a world of globalization.

Genuine interdependence between the North and South already exists. Areas of solidarity can also be defined in the Mediterranean, if we accept to change the model.

Regional integration starts with co-development. If there are divisions over politics and culture, only economics can reduce the gap. Taking an economic approach is the best way to be understood both North and South of the Mediterranean.

In summary, the IPEMED project rests on three convictions:

- Mediterranean countries need to work together to impose themselves in a world of globalization

- Regional integration involves co-development and increased economic cooperation, with entrepreneurs as the pioneers.

- Euro-Mediterranean rapprochement is the key to building a sustainable, socially responsible area for economic growth

Three roles

Produce forward-looking ideas, to develop diagnoses shared between North and South and among countries in the South.
Influence political spheres, so that they will implement public policies which encourage North-South exchanges and facilitate regional integration.
Open up and interweave ideas, to enlighten and convince the largest possible number of decision-makers and opinion leaders on the benefits of bringing together the Euro-Mediterranean.

A Euro-mediterannean Think Tank

IPEMED was created in 2006 by Jean-Louis Guigou, supported by numerous figures from different political backgrounds, entrepreneurs and academics, from North and South of the Mediterranean. IPEMED aims to bring the two sides of the Mediterranean closer together using economics, and to make a concrete contribution to building an integrated, sustainable and socially responsible Euro-Mediterranean area.

- It is independent from political powers in the way it is organized and financed;

- It is equally balanced in its governance and in the way it works;

- It is an international effort: its partners originate in the Mediterranean, European and Gulf countries

- It exerts influence through its network and projects;

-It focuses its action on the economy.