Regional integration is key to growth

Humour n° -
Published : Sunday 28 October 2012 - Agnès Levallois
The major preoccupation for both North and South of the Mediterranean is to create growth to fulfil inhabitants’ expectations and give them a perspective for the future. Time, perhaps, to give the Union for the Mediterranean a new lease of life? That’s the ambition of its Secretary-General, Fathallah Sijilmassi, who intends to take advantage of the new political impetus in southern countries in order to encourage them to take on and develop their own projects with support from the secretariat’s expertise.

Another ambition of stakeholders on both sides of the Mediterranean is to boost regional integration, which is alone capable of creating longed-for growth. Wishful thinking? Analysts and observers agree that the Mediterranean is the least integrated region in the world – the cost of the non-Maghreb is estimated at between 1% and 2% of GDP per country – and that the new leaders’ priority should be to move in this direction. The Tunisian president, Moncef Marzouki, frequently brings up the issue, declaring that, “An area of 100 million consumers could also be an asset for development in Europe, because the Maghreb needs infrastructures”. At the “5+5” second summit of heads of state and government held in Malta on 5 and 6 October, he proposed a meeting between heads of state and government of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) before the end of the year.

The announcement was welcomed by the European Commission’s President, José Manuel Barroso, also present in Malta, who esteemed that the advantages of integration are not just economic, but also affect human development in the region. According to Mr Barroso, the benefits of closer integration in the Maghreb would be shared between partner countries and also benefit neighbouring states, including those in the EU.

This is the challenge that we need to tackle, because although regional construction is ultimately a North African affair, Europe can help in the process. The momentum is underway and everything should be done to move in this direction.
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