Euromed Summit Agrees Terror Pact, No Definition
BARCELONA, Spain, November 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Europe and its mostly Muslim southern neighbors clinched a last-minute agreement on a code of conduct to fight terrorism on Monday, November 28, though the two sides failed to agree a definition for terrorism.
"It's as strong a statement as you can possibly have on the unified determination to fight terrorism in all its forms," British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a news conference, reported Reuters.
"Terrorism can never be justified," he said.
"This is a very important moment both for the European countries and for our other colleagues round the table," said Blair, co-hosting the summit with his Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
"Definitional issues will run their course."
After hours of wrangling, a final compromise omitted both the EU's insistence that self-determination could not be used to justify terrorism and the Arabs' demand to distinguish between terrorism and the right to resist foreign occupation.
The leaders were unable to agree on a planned common vision document because of differences over what to say about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Instead the presidency issued a statement calling for a just, two-state solution.
The summit is to mark the 10th anniversary of the so-called Euro-Mediterranean partnership, otherwise known as the Barcelona Process, launched in the Spanish city in 1995.
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The Euromed partnership joins the 25-nation EU with Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
Resistance
Discord over the definition of terrorism marked the two-day gathering, which was portrayed by the EU as a bid to revitalize a 10-year-old partnership with its Mediterranean-rim partners.
Arab partners wanted the EU to distinguish between terrorism and the right to resist occupation, while the Europeans and Israel opposed any qualification of terrorism.
"Success in confronting terrorism on the regional or international levels is contingent upon addressing its root causes and protecting the rights of peoples under foreign occupation to resistance," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Shara told the summit.
Spain - co-hosting the summit - has lobbied for a greater EU commitment to North Africa.
Madrid believes more prosperity in Africa will help stem the flow of illegal migrants desperate to reach wealthy Europe and counter extremist beliefs that feed terrorism.
Immigration
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The summit also agreed on a raft of initiatives to combat illegal immigration, while fostering legal migration flows as a means of allowing wealth to flow from north to south.
Zapatero said the summiteers favored "regulated, ordered, well-managed migration, and Barcelona has taken important steps to that end."
The summit also agreed on a five-year work plan to cement relations between the two regional groups. European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said that Europe was "now building a bridge to the south" having held firm during the Cold War until the barriers between Western and Eastern Europe disappeared.
Money for Reform
Arab delegations expressed frustration that terrorism and immigration bumped economic development down the list of priorities.
"We find it humiliating that the Europeans demand reforms from us in exchange for a few euros," said Algerian minister of state Abdelaziz Belkhadem.
Arab analysts maintained that the summit should have done more to press for development, although the meeting did see the creation of a 45 million euro (52.6 million dollar) risk capital investment fund for Maghreb-region firms, rising to a potential 100 million euros. The summit was clouded by the absence of eight Arab leaders.
European Parliament head Josep Borrell said it was a "shame" that so many of the partner countries' leaders had decided not to come to the summit, instead sending lower-level delegations to Barcelona.
"Their presence would have been very useful and would have presented a stronger political commitment," he said, adding that "some absences were justified, others less so."
Of the Mediterranean-rim partner states, only Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan led highest-level delegations.
The Barcelona summit was meant to be the first time that leaders of a group that includes Israelis and Palestinians as well as the 25 EU countries had met.
Previous meetings of the Euro-Mediterranean group have been at foreign minister level.
That undermined the prestige of a meeting which EU leaders wanted to extend cooperation across the Mediterranean to help combat terrorism and illegal immigration.
