Monday International News

Mediterranean, EU nations to
boost ties with new union
Agence France-Presse . Paris
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and 42 leaders on Sunday launched a union between Europe and its Mediterranean neighbours amid hopes the grand plan will bring fresh impetus to Middle East peace efforts. Heads of state and government from the 27 EU nations and an arc of countries from north Africa to the Balkans – representing some 756 million people – will inaugurate the new forum at the Grand Palais on Paris’ Champs Elysees.
‘The goal of the summit,’ Sarkozy said, ‘is that we learn how to love each other in the Mediterranean, instead of continuing to hate and wage war.’
‘It doesn’t mean that all of the problems are resolved of course,’ he said, following talks between the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian president, Mahmud Abbas, on the sidelines of the summit.
The meeting will see the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, return to the international stage, but while he will sit at the same table as Olmert no talks between them are planned.
It is also providing a venue for France to step up its Middle East diplomacy.
‘We have never been as close to an accord as we are today,’ Olmert told reporters after his talks with Abbas, in the presence of the French leader. The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, recognised that the region was fraught with tensions and economic disparities but he nevertheless hailed ‘a time of hope’ for Middle East peace.


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