FM: Dialogue in Western Mediterranean 5+5 Should Not Be Satisfied with Being Oldest Framework for Cooperation but Most Effective

The Dialogue in the Western Mediterranean 5+5 should not be satisfied with being the oldest framework for cooperation in this part of the world, but the most effective while keeping its primary identity as pioneer grouping, laboratory of ideas and driving force, said on Thursday Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad Nasser Bourita, during the 16th meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the said Dialogue, held by teleconference.

The Dialogue in the Western Mediterranean 5+5 must gather at a sub-regional level, where the Euro-Med Process struggles to transcend divergent interests while being able to speak in one voice, both at the level of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and in international fora, and channel the views of the North to the South and those of the South to the North. “One side must be the spokesperson of the other and vice versa,” said Bourita.

In a wider geostrategic context, Bourita noted that at a time when the European Union begins to revise its neighborhood policy, the 5+5 must be a source of proposal.

“Who better than the 5+5 to promote ownership of the ENP by the countries it primarily concerns?”, he asked, noting, in the same vein, that at a time when the EU was considering a new pact on migration, the 5+5 must be at the forefront of this thought.

The minister called for the transformation of the 5+5 into a G10 to move towards a group that transcends arithmetic, to be pragmatic; a group where enhanced cooperation is expressed, inviting the 5+5 countries to speak with one voice and with a common message on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Barcelona Process.

The 5+5 Dialogue, created in 1990, is a sub-regional forum which constitutes one of the first fruitful initiatives between Mediterranean countries. It brings together the ten countries of the Western Mediterranean, namely: Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia, Spain, France, Italy, Malta and Portugal.