Wednesday 6 January 2010

The Union for the Mediterranean: The zombie is alive!

How do you prove that a death-born child is alive? Well, you pre-select a Secretary General with Brussels experience and make five countries agree on him.

This is what according to Eurotribune has been happening at the zombie organisation known by its official name "Union for the Mediterranean", an organisation that doesn't even have a website yet (at least none known to me so far), which is an obvious signal in the 15th Muslim, 21st Christian, and 58th Jewish century (hope the figures are correct).

But apparently, Egypt, France, Spain, Tunisia, and Jordan, five countries out of 44, have agreed to nominate Ahmad Massadeh as candidate for the post of Secretary General of the Union. According to other news reports, this represents a consensus of all Union member states.

Mr Massedeh, a former minister, is the current Jordanian ambassador to the EU and NATO, and thus probably a person well known in Brussels - something important for an organisation with a majority of countries being either in the EU or in NATO.

However, seeing the speed with which the almost dead organisation has developed over the last 1 1/2 years, the main task of its Secretary General - if he will be appointed - will be to apply all life-prolonging measures necessary to keep the death man walking.

(found via alvaromillan on Twitter)

2 comments:

Filip Schwartz Kirkegaard said...

What exactly is wrong with the Med union?

I see the logic in putting together more focused relationships and forums with EU's neighborhood, like the Med Union and Eastern Partnership. Do you not think that the Med Union might be a good forum for discussing practical problems like smuggling, pollution terrorism etc - just like The New Northern Dimension and The Baltic Region Programme...

Here is the list of priorities for the EU-MED.

* the de-pollution of the Mediterranean Sea;
* the establishment of maritime and land highways;
* civil protection initiatives to combat natural and man-made disasters;
* a Mediterranean solar energy plan;
* the inauguration of the Euro-Mediterranean University in Slovenia;
* and the Mediterranean Business Development Initiative focusing on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/euromed/index_en.htm

Julien Frisch said...

It is wrong that this project started as a political project with ambitious goals and that it has remained in stalemate for the last 1 1/2 years, for different reasons including Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

If you see my article on the "zombie organisation", you will notice that they cannot even agree on something concrete in a non-political area.

It is a diplomatic monster with minuscule goals, inable to even advance in these matters. This is a waste of money so far.