The launch of the Union for the Mediterranean, a new international body comprising 43 nations in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, is expected to bolster trade between the European Union and countries around the Mediterranean basin, as well as providing a welcome boost to the region's fresh produce sector.
The establishment of the new body, which will look to continue and extend the work of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership – founded in 1995 by the Barcelona Process – was announced yesterday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy at a summit meeting in Paris.
Investment in the MEDA ten (a group of economies to the south and east of the Mediterranean, including Turkey, Israel and Egypt) over the past few years has boomed, with foreign direct investment totalling just under €40bn during 2006 – second only to the €44bn pumped into China during the same year and more than was invested over those 12 months in ASEAN, Russia, Mercosur or India.
The Port of Tangiers in northern Morocco typifies the region's impressive development, with AP Møller Maersk's (APM) Tanger Med terminal development – which opened last July – handling some 3.5m containers a year, making it the largest port in Africa and already as large as Felixstowe, the biggest port in the UK.
As ports to the north of the Mediterranean, such as Algeciras in Spain, reach the upper limits of their capacity, new developments to the south and east are enabling companies like APM to continue expanding. This summer, a second terminal is due to open at Tangiers and, by 2013, annual throughput is expected to reach 8m containers.
