mr president president sarkozy's proposal for a union for the mediterranean was the highpoint of the french presidency of the eu
since then it appears to have lost some of its lustre
this may not be a bad thing because the eu is itself developing a robust and successful southern dimension of its own neighbourhood policy
this follows almost two decades of the development of the barcelona process and its political apparatus
europe's taxpayers rightly take a very dim view of duplication of effort and waste of resources and there is some confusion about all these competing processes but whatever the fate of the union for the mediterranean at the summit on eight june we must not allow the eastern dimension of the european neighbourhood policy to fall behind
sadly we have not developed the putative euronest assembly in the same way as the euromed assembly which has been active for so long
this is principally because of the problems relating to belarus participation
lastly my ecr group fully supports mr albertini as chair of the committee on foreign affairs to resile from leading the visit to the middle east
this has been controversial and discussed this morning in the enlarged bureau
any vote of no confidence in the chair of the committee on foreign affairs by the socialist group we will oppose
