The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Pros and Cons

An Arab View

by Hani H. Habeeb

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Synopsis

This book is a historical document, a disputed analysis and evidence of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership as introduced by the Barcelona Declaration. It is an account of the unprecedented and unrivalled negotiations between the Euro-Mediterranean partners and an evaluation of their achievements. It is also an account of the obstacles faced in the transformation of the Euro-Mediterranean region into one of peace, security, stability and prosperity to ensure the realisation of a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East on the basis of the international terms of reference, democratic principles, the establishment of a free trade zone, a market economy system and the participation of civil society.

The book addresses several questions which aim to determine whether the Partnership is an extension of the crusades and the Balfour Declaration, the result of international transformations, a reflection of diversity, or a real threat to the security, economy and culture of the Arab world, aimed at Arab identity and the perpetration of division amongst the Arab world through the creation of a multinational regional system identified as the Western model for an Eastern-Mediterranean system that will ensure the integration of Israel and the creation of a separate phase of rupture and alienation within the history of Arab civilisation.

Similarly, this book argues whether the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, globalisation, imperialist alliances and civil society are multiple manifestations of a single phenomenon to insure Western supremacy and strategic expansion, and the exploitation of the Mediterranean region. Or, whether the Partnership is the strategic Arab-European choice needed at this particular moment in history in order to galvanise an effective European political and economic role in the development, and economic, technological and civil evolution of the Arab world.

The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has the potential to become as essential as air and water for the Arab countries if it proves to be just, balanced and comprehensive in its political, economic and cultural dimensions. Its credibility should provoke the creation of an Arab partnership, either before or in parallel to the Arab-European Partnership, for the protection of Arab identity and destiny.

About the Author

Hani Habeeb is a Doctor of Political Economics and the Ambassador for the Syrian Arab Republic to the EU, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg since 1996.

He led the Syrian delegation during the negotiations for the Barcelona Declaration and presided the meetings held in the framework of the Arab-European Partnership for the Syrian delegation and the Arab Group.

Former Ambassador to North Korea and a member of the Syrian mission to New York, Washington and New Delhi, he was also Director of the Department of International Organisations and Conferences, the Department of Culture and the Department of Economics at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Damascus.