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SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE HON GEORGE PULLICINO, MINISTER FOR RESOURCES AND RURAL AFFAIRS, DURING THE EUROMEDITI VALLETTA FORUM - VALLETTA – MONDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2008 |
Date:
15/12/2008
The Valletta Forum is the premier, annual Euro-Mediterranean Forum on regional technology transfer. It is exclusively focused on issues related to the financing of the Union for the Mediterranean technology projects. Attracting new private sector project finance to the Mediterranean is a top priority. It is widely acknowledged that this project financing is one of the major challenges to the success of the initiative, especially given that this will potentially require billions of Euros in investment.
The Euro Med Partnership – Union for the Mediterranean projects presently being discussed will boost the pace of implementation of the current Euro Med Partnership five year work programme by spelling out a plan of action that focuses on commencing a multitude of projects in specific sectors. De-pollution of the Mediterranean is essential if we and future generations are to be able to sustain our way of life in this region of the world. We must be determined to build upon the Horizon 2020 programme of activities so that the quality of marine activity is safeguarded.
Another sector that requires our attention is that of maritime and land highways. The Mediterranean has been a strategic sea-line of communications for centuries. If the people to people dimension of Euro-Mediterranean relations is to be further enhanced we must focus our attention on developing further motorways of the seas, including the connection of ports and the modernisation of the trans-Maghreb train route. Maritime security and safety are also sectors that need to be improved so that transhipment activity across the Mediterranean does not risk the livelihood of coastal populations.
The time has also come for us to develop a comprehensive Mediterranean civil protection system that can protect the millions of people living along the basin should a man-made or natural disaster emerge. The negative impact that climate change is already having on global weather patterns is already apparent. We therefore need to provide a civil protection programme that includes prevention, preparation and response to disaster mechanisms.
The Union for the Mediterranean action plan will also concentrate its attention to spurring alternative energies research and development. A specific focus will take place on assessing the extent to which a Mediterranean Solar Plan can be implemented. The volatility of energy markets in contemporary international relations dictates that we explore the possibility of developing alternative sources of energy.
In such an exercise one needs to guard against abstract grand designs. The focus needs to be on delivering practical modalities of cooperation. Such an enhanced dialogue will also provide more dynamism and substance to the Euro Med Partnership, European Neighbourhood Policy, and also sub-regional groupings such as the Med Forum and the 5 + 5 and any eventual Mediterranean Union initiative. In such an exercise of network building one must also remember the very important role that Mediterranean municipalities can play. If we can manage to establish a truly interactive network between them, this will go a long way to fostering a closer understanding of one another.
In line with one of the main objectives of EuroMedITI in general and the Valletta Forum in particular, the Union for the Mediterranean aims at giving to initiatives for the promotion of renewable energy, and this interests me directly being the Minister responsible for Resources. The Mediterranean lacks expertise in certain modern technology. There is one area in which the Mediterranean could become one of the world leaders: renewable energies. Few countries on earth offer such favourable opportunities for the major 3-4 most promising technologies for producing renewable energy at competitive costs. They dispose of ample sunshine through most of the year and 10,000 km of coastlines with good to excellent wind and wave conditions.
Why not create a synergy of these natural advantages with the EU`s rich experience in the design and use of renewable energies and engage in a comprehensive and long-term EU-Mediterranean development effort? Both sides would immensely benefit from such a joint undertaking, which would have to involve public and private research institutions, solar companies, developers etc.
The EU would benefit in the following domains:
• It would open a new big market for large-scale application of its technologies in its immediate neighbourhood under ideal conditions.
• It would be able to diversify its energy supply from fossil to renewable by importing “clean” electricity from Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Morocco, all of which dispose of ample lands for installing large solar fields (both PV and solar-thermal) to be connected to the European-Mediterranean grid under construction.
The Mediterranean would benefit in a number of ways:
• By making its energy supply sustainable beyond the times when fossil sources will reach depletion;
• By cooperating more closely with European research institutes in the development of more sophisticated research facilities;
• By getting involved in the manufacturing and installation of solar/wind/wave facilities, jointly with European partners; and
• Opportunity to benefit from waste management in the Mediterranean.
In order for this to succeed, the European renewable energy industry has to realise the long-term opportunities of lining up with Mediterranean partners. Moreover, the European Commission has to back such a cooperative approach by offering launch finance adequate political support. It should play the catalyst role in bringing the two sides together. This is a long-term venture; but the two sides should lose no time in taking the initiative. The Valletta Forum offers a unique platform where such interaction can take place on a regular basis with the specific objective of ensuring that such essential initiatives become a reality.
In addition, the EU together with private stakeholders, should provide adequate long term financing to such projects. Higher employment and growth will only come forth with higher investment ratios in the Mediterranean. As much as twenty-five per cent of GDP should be the minimum investment ratio to be envisaged as the objective. Some part of this will have to be financed by external funding. The major part of external funding should come from long-term loans and through Foreign Direct Investment.
The Mediterranean countries have been lobbying for the creation of a “MED Development Bank”. While some critics argue that there is not enough demand for such finance to justify a brand-new institution there is no doubting that creating such an institution will help raise awareness of the opportunities and challenges facing Mediterranean countries.
A Med Development Bank should emulate the activities of a proven institution – the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. The EBRD has successfully completed its mission in the 8 new EU member countries. It is expanding its business farther east up to Central Asia. Why not offer it a new avenue in the Mediterranean through an offshoot institution. With its emphasis on financing new businesses it would ideally complement the European Investment Bank that is more focused on big infrastructure projects.
The longer-term objective of an enhanced political dialogue between the EU and the Mediterranean world should be to foster a more conducive political environment within which a political dialogue that aims towards a convergence of civilisations is achieved.
The Euro-Med Partnership: Union for the Mediterranean is also focusing on the launching of a substantial scholarships scheme for university students from Euro-Mediterranean Partner countries and an increase of mobility grants for Higher Education staff.
The educational field is a sector where more effort needs to be dedicated. The European Commission together with its member states needs to trigger both public and private stakeholders to work hand in hand with a long-term perspective to attract a larger number of Arab students to European shores. This will of course require an updating of procedures for visas, making them more user friendly for such a category of professionals.
Future Euro-Med programmes need to ensure that people to people interaction is at the forefront, especially amongst younger generations. It is essential that a much larger number of students from the Arab world are given the opportunity to study at EU universities. The Bologna process must be made functional to them. The same goes for joint EU Arab research projects. The EU must introduce a package of programmes that seeks to tap into the wealth of intelligence in the Euro-Med region via scholarships, seminars, and other initiatives. The Euro-Med Education Ministerial meeting that took place in Cairo in June 2007 has started to serve as a catalyst in this regard.
Malta is fully committed to ensuring implementation of the above projects to help trigger a more rapid pace of inter-regional development across the Mediterranean.
The Euro-Med Partnership: Union for the Mediterranean offers Europe and the international community an opportunity to carry out a strategic reassessment that will allow for more political attention and economic resources to be directed towards upgrading stability and opportunities across the Mediterranean.
Malta’s active participation in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is perhaps best described as an extension of its co-operative security philosophy. It should also be regarded as a tangible contribution to creating a Euro-Mediterranean region based upon the attributes of positive diplomacy.
The main factor that should move European and Mediterranean states closer together in future are the mutual security interests they share: Euro-Med political, economic and cultural cooperation must be strengthened if stability is to be secured in future.
The key reason to support the Union for the Mediterranean initiative is that it is in both the EU and the Mediterranean states’ interests for the Union for the Mediterranean to succeed given the indivisibility of security between Europe and the Mediterranean. Across the Mediterranean geopolitical and geo-economic indicators are not as positive as they can be. Foreign Direct Investment is lacking, intra-Mediterranean trade remains limited, north-south economic disparity is resulting in a permanent poverty curtain across the Mediterranean. Moreover, the demographic time-bomb continues to escalate, unemployment continues to increase, illegal migration has reached alarming levels, illiteracy remains at very high levels, and an escalation of ongoing conflicts remains a serious concern.
The only way this future can be avoided is if the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Union for the Mediterranean succeeds in attracting the interest of international institutions such as the World Bank, OECD, and the IMF and persuades them to become more altruistic in their dealings with the region. The Mediterranean countries themselves must also adopt more of a self-help mentality. Rather than undermine or diminish the significance of this process, the growing socio-economic disparities across the Mediterranean underlines further the significance of the Euro Med Partnership: Union for the Mediterranean, which is the only multilateral process of its kind in the area. |
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