2006-2016 Report : A deep integration : ideas to take action

Making a deep Euro-Mediterranean integration possible : ideas to take action

 

A region in the making with a common future : the Euro-Mediterranean convergence

The Mediterranean is an unstable region in the making, undergoing multiple crises. This region also features resources and skills, its own history and culture, and it boasts all the necessary assets to become a significant region in our globalised world. It can take advantage of obvious complementarities among Mediterranean countries (collective preferences, demography, natural resources, produced goods and services). It can also find cooperation opportunities when common challenges require a collective answer (improvement of productivity gains, job creation, fight against and adaptation to climate change, supply and investment security, migrations, etc.). To do so, the only viable scenario is the 2030 Euro-Mediterranean convergence imagined by IPEMED, in collaboration with Euromediterranean organisations and Mediterranean public and private prospective institutes.

This convergence scenario can be driven either by Europe or by a new Southern economic dynamic. The latter could result in a rapprochement with European economies, or in a relative separation between a more integrated Southern shore and the EU. This scenario, unlikely at the end of 2010, gained credibility after the Arab revolutions. 

Standard convergence, coproduction, industries: the levers of integration 

A Euro-Mediterranean convergence paired up with a stronger growth favouring job creation may be considered, but only if all countries share a voluntarist political action. This requires a geographic redistribution of production and the sharing of added value (coproduction dynamic), the development of complementarities and the implementation of industries in order to reinforce competitiveness in the region. It is also necessary to redistribute wealth, to standardise norms and to implement the four freedoms of the EU (movement of goods, capitals, services and people).

Key elements of Turkish transformation: attracting private sector and combining economic and political reforms

Integration requires the implementation of reforms in the South. Can the Turkish transformation process serve as an example for SEMCs? With the implementation of a customs union and within the process of accession to the EU, Turkey engaged in a series of reforms (commercial and economic policies, public administration, judicial system, Copenhagen criteria, etc.) that transformed the country and favoured growth.

SEMCs, and especially Tunisia and Morocco where the process has already started, can draw a few lessons, among which:

• importance of the private sector as a strong driving force of the process;
• economic and political reforms must go hand in hand;
• reforms to establish quality standards, export high-quality products and develop efficient industries cannot be separated from reforms to institute macro-economic stability;
• supranational regulations are a strong but limited motivation. The country must understand the need for reforms;
• the reinstatement of the rule of law is crucial.

A new European vision : evolution of the ENP

It is also necessary for the Northern shore to change its approach. The EU understood this and reshaped its neighbourhood policy. IPEMED recently took part in the consultation on the ENP and proposed new dedicated devices (a think tank, a bank, coproduction) as well as a new contractual method ensuring a balance among partners (co-development contracts).

 

Associate expert:  Gül Ertan Özgüzer, Cécile Jolly

Main publications :

• Construire la Méditerranée, « Méditerranée 2030, panorama et enjeux géostratégiques, humaines et économiques », April 2009
• Construire la Méditerranée, "Tomorrow the Mediterranea, scenarios and projections for 2030, November 2011
• Construire la Méditerranée, "Turkey and the benefits of supranational regulations", April 2013

 Key figures

38 videos

34 organisations involved from 15 countries

15 publications

 

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