[autom.vertaling] De mediterrane landen en de EU verbeteren industriële samenwerking (en)

A policy agenda to promote investment, innovation, access to finance and the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the EU and 12 south-east Mediterranean countries will be drawn up at a meeting of the Working Group on Euro-Mediterranean Industrial Co-operation in Rome on 2 and 3 October. Work on this agenda, based on shared experience and proven best practice, will help bed in the new relations initiated earlier this year by the Commission's Wider Europe Communication (see IP/03/963). This work should be stepped up by the Euro-Mediterranean Charter for Entrepreneurship in 2004 and, along with progress in ensuring the free movement of goods, should help to pave the way to the creation of a free trade area between the EU and its Mediterranean partners by 2010.

Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said: "I welcome the efforts of the partners in this area and actively support them. Strengthening links among companies on both shores of the Mediterranean is vital to our common goal of achieving a stable and prosperous neighbourhood."

Figures on investment and trade with and within the south-east Mediterranean show that its economic potential is still far from fully exploited. Apart from Israel, foreign direct investment (FDI) figures are very modest for countries such as Egypt (€ 444 million in 2001) or even Tunisia (€ 424 million), which is considered the most open economy in the Arab world. The south-east Mediterranean attracts only one quarter of the FDI it could expect given its proximity to EU markets and its potential in terms of natural and human resources. Total exports and imports between EU and Mediterranean countries stagnated for the past decade, at well below € 10 billion. Data on trade among the southern Mediterranean partners themselves are even more disappointing. They confirm that policy co-operation in the region is weak, and that protectionist attitudes have to be overcome if the aim of opening up a free trade area by 2010 is to be achieved.

The enterprise policy co-operation strategy to be unveiled in Rome is modelled on that developed with accession candidate countries. The meeting has been co-organised by the Commission and the Italian authorities. Mr Antonio Marzano, the Italian Minister for Productive Activities, will open the meeting together with Mr Rachid Talbi El Alami, Morocco's Minister for Industry, Trade and Telecommunications. Several industry Directors-General from the EU, the EU accession countries and the Mediterranean partners (Cyprus and Malta, who will join the EU on 1 May, next year, Turkey, a candidate country, and Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian National Authority, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) will take part in the discussions.

The meeting will focus on two main issues. The first is the free movement of industrial goods. At a meeting in Palermo on 7 July 2003, trade ministries agreed to work towards bilateral agreements on procedures for assessing whether specific industrial products conform to the essential requirements of EU directives. Products covered by these agreements will be able to enter the single market freely, without additional testing and certification. Agreements of this type have been concluded with candidate countries over the past few years and produced positive results for both sides. They create, de facto, a real free trade partnership.

The second issue is the development of an environment favourable to the competitiveness of enterprises and foreign investment in the region, including access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Mediterranean partners need to improve administrative, regulatory and financial conditions for their enterprises. Each of them is at a different stage in this process. Many countries are implementing national programmes to modernise their industries and receive support from the EU MEDA programme (e.g. Egypt, € 250 million; Jordan, € 40 million; Tunisia, € 50 million). In addition, several regional projects are under way in areas such as investment promotion, quality, and single market mechanisms. These projects were defined jointly by the EU and Mediterranean partners and are financed by MEDA (€ 30 million).

Other initiatives to be tabled in Rome include the preparation of a Euro-Mediterranean Charter for Entrepreneurship, to be adopted at ministerial level in 2004 . This Charter will become a reference point for developing effective policies to support SMEs, as has been happening in EU accession candidate countries and in the Western Balkans since they adopted the European Charter for Small Enterprises, respectively in 2002 in Maribor (Slovenia) and in 2003 in Thessalonika (Greece). Mediterranean partners will tailor the Charter to their specific circumstances and needs. Exchanging experiences and good practices, sharing knowledge and benchmarking will improve the effectiveness of measures to support enterprise development and investment promotion.

For further information:

On the Industrial co-operation with the Mediterranean region:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/ind_coop_programmes/med/index.htm

On the economic co-operation with the Mediterranean region:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/med/sectors/b2_en.htm

On the relations between the EU and the Mediterranean region:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/med_mideast/intro/index.htm