Khatib leaves for Germany to represent Jordan at Euro-Med conference

By Francesca Ciriaci

James Moran, head of the European Commission delegation in Amman, said he suspected “there is something coming out of Stuttgart on the cultural side that will be of particular interest to Jordan.”

“Jordan has been through a dramatic time, a great man has passed away,” he said, adding that the 15 member states and their Mediterranean partners are fully aware of the very special situation that the Kingdom has passed through following the death of King Hussein, on Feb. 7.

“This will feature in the debate,” Moran told the Jordan Times, providing no details.

Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib left yesterday to head Jordan's delegation to the two-day conference, aimed to foster the spirit of the Barcelona process, launched in 1995, and strengthen political, economic, and cultural ties between Europe and its 12 Mediterranean partners.

According to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Khatib will be flanked in Stuttgart by the Jordanian ambassadors to Germany, Hussein Hamami, and Belgium, Omaya Touqan.

The ministerial conference, which follows similar meetings in Malta in April 1997 and Palermo last June, is slated to table a draft Charter for Peace and Stability and maximise confidence-building measures among the EU and Mediterranean countries, in line with the guidelines set in Barcelona for the political and security “basket” of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.

According to Moran, “for the first time, the EU and the Mediterranean partners are expected to get down to business on the aspect of security,” so far shadowed by the “economic basket” of the Barcelona process.

On the economic level, the Stuttgart conference will reaffirm and review the strategies for the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area by 2010 — the main aim of the partnership — through stepping up programmes to help economies in transition towards market liberalisation, especially by assisting the private sector in upgrading production, obtaining licences, and adjusting to internationally recognised practices to meet the basic requirements to enter the European market.

“Our financial cooperation under the MEDA scheme is squarely targeted towards the transition of private businesses,” Moran explained, announcing that a European programme, expected to be finalised and approved by mid-September, will prepare Jordanian entrepreneurs in all sectors to face competition in Europe.

The industrial modernisation programme, which will complement similar efforts by Japan and the U.S., “will be the largest programme of its kind from anywhere in Jordan,” Moran said.

The Jordan-EU association agreement, signed in November 1997, has so far been ratified only by the EU Parliament and Spain.

But Moran said hopes are high that it will be ratified by Jordan and the other 14 EU-member states by the year 2,000. After being discussed by Parliament last year, the agreement passed through the scrutiny of the Lower House Legal Affairs Committee and is currently before the Financial Affairs Committee.

Many Jordanian businessmen fear that, although the abolition of custom duties has been phased out over a period of 12 years depending on the importance of different products to the Jordanian economy, they will be pushed out of business when the agreement comes into force.

Back to April 15, 1999